The Romance of Words (4th ed.)
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Title: The Romance of Words (4th ed.)
Author: Ernest Weekley
Release date: December 21, 2007 [eBook #23958]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23958
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF WORDS (4TH ED.) ***
Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Stephen Blundell and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Transcriber's Note:
Unique page headings have been retained, marked as [Page Heading]
and positioned prior to the relevant paragraph.
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
Significant amendments have been listed at the end of the text.
Greek text has been transliterated and is shown between {braces}.
Non-ASCII characters are represented as follows:
[)a] a with breve
[)e] e with breve
[)u] u with breve
[=a] a with macron
[=e] e with macron
[=i] i with macron
[=o] o with macron
[=u] u with macron
[oe] oe ligature
[/s] long s
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
THE ROMANCE OF NAMES
"Mr Weekley inspires confidence by his scholarly method of handling
a subject which has been left, for the most part, to the amateur or
the crank."--_Spectator._ THIRD EDITION. 6s. net.
SURNAMES
"Under Professor Weekley's guidance a study of the origin and
significance of surnames becomes full of fascination."--_Truth._
SECOND EDITION. 6s. net.
AN ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF MODERN ENGLISH
"One knows from experience that Mr Weekley would contrive to avoid
unnecessary dullness even if he was compiling a railway guide, but
that he would also get the trains right."--Mr J. C. SQUIRE in _The
Observer_. Crown 4to. £2. 2s. net.
A CONCISE ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF MODERN ENGLISH
The abridgment has not involved any diminution in the vocabulary; in
fact, many new words such as _copec_, _fascist_, _insulin_, _rodeo_,
etc., are here registered for the first time. Large Crown 8vo. 7s.
6d. net.
WORDS ANCIENT AND MODERN
"We cordially recommend to the discriminating reader a book
altogether fresh, amusing and delightful."--_Morning Post._ Second
Impression. 5s. net.
_All rights reserved_
THE ROMANCE OF
WORDS
BY ERNEST WEEKLEY, M.A.
PROFESSOR OF FRENCH AND HEAD OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE
DEPARTMENT AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, NOTTINGHAM; SOMETIME
SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AUTHOR OF "THE
ROMANCE OF NAMES," "SURNAMES"
"Vous savez le latin, sans doute?"--
"Oui, mais faites comme si je ne le savais pas."
(MOLIÈRE, _Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme_, ii. 6.)
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
FIRST EDITION MARCH 1912
_Reprinted_ JUNE 1912
SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED NOVEMBER 1913
THIRD EDITION MAY 1917
FOURTH EDITION JANUARY 1922
_Reprinted_ FEBRUARY 1925
_Reprinted_ JANUARY 1927
PREFACE
A long and somewhat varied experience in language teaching has convinced
me that there are still, in spite of the march of science, many people
who are capable of getting intellectual pleasure from word-history. I
hope that to such people this little book, the amusement of occasional
leisure, will not be unwelcome. It differs, I believe, from any other
popular book on language in that it deals essentially with the origins
of words, and makes no attempt to enforce a moral. My aim has been to
select especially the unexpected in etymology, "things not generally
known," such as the fact that _Tammany_ was an Indian chief, that
_assegai_ occurs in Chaucer, that _jilt_ is identical with _Juliet_,
that _brazil_ wood is not named from _Brazil_, that to _curry favour_
means to comb down a horse of a particular colour, and so forth. The
treatment is made as simple as possible, a bowing acquaintance with
Latin and French being all that is assumed, though words from many other
languages are necessarily included. In the case of each word I have
traced the history just so far back as it is likely to be of interest to
the reader who is not a philological specialist.
I have endeavoured to state each proposition in its simplest terms,
without enumerating all the reservations and indirect factors which
belong to the history of almost every word.
The chapter headings only indicate in a general way the division of the
subject matter, the arrangement of which has been determined rather by
the natural association which exists between words. The quotations are,
with few exceptions, drawn from my own reading. They come from very
varied sources, but archaic words are exemplified, when possible, from
authors easily accessible, generally Shakespeare or Milton, or, for
revived archaisms, Scott. In illustrating obsolete meanings I have made
much use of the earliest dictionaries[1] available.
It seemed undesirable to load a small work of this kind with references.
The writer on word-lore must of necessity build on what has already been
done, happy if he can add a few bricks to the edifice. But philologists
will recognise that this book is not, in the etymological sense, a mere
compilation,[2] and that a considerable portion of the information it
contains is here printed for the first time in a form accessible to the
general reader.[3] Chapter VII., on Semantics, is, so far as I know, the
first attempt at a simple treatment of a science which is now admitted
to an equality with phonetics, and which to most people is much more
interesting.
Throughout I have used the _New English Dictionary_, in the etymological
part of which I have for some years had a humble share, for purposes of
verification. Without the materials furnished by the historical method
of that great national work, which is now complete from A to R, this
book would not have been attempted. For words in S to Z, I have referred
chiefly to Professor Skeat's _Etymological Dictionary_ (4th ed., Oxford,
1910).
It is not many years since what passed for etymology in this country was
merely a congeries of wild guesses and manufactured anecdotes. The
persistence with which these crop up in the daily paper and the
class-room must be my excuse for "slaying the slain" in Chapter XIII.
Some readers may regret the disappearance of these fables, but a little
study will convince them that in the life of words, as in that of men,
truth is stranger than fiction.
ERNEST WEEKLEY.
_NOTTINGHAM, January 1912._
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
On its first publication this little book was very kindly treated by
both reviewers and readers. The only criticism of any importance was
directed against its conciseness. There seemed to be a consensus of
expert opinion that, the book being intended for the non-specialist, the
compression was a little too severe, and likely sometimes to lead to
misunderstanding. I have tried to remedy this defect in the present
edition, both by giving fuller explanations and by supplying further
quotations in illustration of the less common words and uses. No
absolutely new matter is introduced, but a number of fresh words have
been added as examples of points already noticed. The general
arrangement of the book remains unchanged, except that a few paragraphs
have been shifted to what seemed more natural positions.
Friendly correspondents in all parts of the world, to many of whom I
must apologise for my failure to answer their letters, have sent me
information of interest and value. In some cases I have been able to
make use of such information for this edition. Many readers have called
my attention to local and American survivals of words and meanings
described as obsolete. This is a subject on which a great deal could be
written, but it lies outside the plan of this book, which does not
aspire to do more than furnish some instruction or entertainment to
those who are interested in the curiosities of etymology.
ERNEST WEEKLEY.
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
It is just five years since this little book was first submitted to the
toleration of word-lovers, a class much more numerous than the author
had suspected. The second edition, revised and slightly enlarged,
appeared in 1913. Since then the text has once more been subjected to a
searching revision, and it is hoped that the book now contains no
statement which is not in accord with common sense and the present state
of philological knowledge. Only those who have experience of such work
know how easy it is to stray unconsciously from the exact truth in
publishing the results of etymological research. Moreover, new light is
constantly being thrown on old problems, and theories long triumphant
have occasionally to yield to fresh evidence. To take an example from
this volume, the traditional derivation of _trousers_ from French
_trousse_ is now shown by the _New English Dictionary_ to be
chronologically improbable. That great and cautious work unhesitatingly
describes _hatchment_ as a corruption of _achievement_, but Professor
Derocquigny, of Lille, has shown (_Modern Language Review_, January
1913) that this etymology is "preposterous," _hachement_ being a good
old French word which in 16th century English was ignorantly confused
with _achievement_. Apart from these two etymologies,[4] the only
essential alterations have been made in the chapter on Surnames (p.
170), further research in medieval records having convinced the author
that most of what has been written about "corrupted" surnames is
nonsense, and that no nickname is too fantastic to be genuine.[5] Two
slight contemplated alterations have not been carried out. The adjective
applied (p. 156) to a contemporary ruler seemed to need reconsideration,
but the author was baffled by the _embarras du choix_. A word mentioned
on p. 48 might gracefully have been omitted, but it is likely that the
illustrious man alluded to would, if the page should ever accidentally
meet his eye, only chuckle at the thought of time's revenges.
In the interval since the last edition of the _Romance of Words_ the
greatest _Romance of Deeds_ in our story has been written in the blood
of our noblest and best. Only a sense of proportion withholds the
author from dedicating this new edition to the glorious memory of his
many old pupils dead on the field of honour. Nothing in the modest
success of the book has given him so much pleasure as the fact, to which
his correspondence bears witness, that his little contribution to
word-lore has helped to amuse the convalescence of more than one
stricken fighting-man.
ERNEST WEEKLEY.
_NOTTINGHAM, March 1917._
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION
In preparing a new edition of this little book, ten years after its
first appearance, I have corrected a few slight inaccuracies which had
been overlooked in earlier revisions, and modified or expanded some
statements which were not quite consonant with the present state of
etymological knowledge. In word-lore, as in other sciences, it is seldom
safe to lay down the law without a little conscientious "hedging." The
only two considerable alterations have to do with the word
_snickersnee_, the history of which is now clearly traced, and the name
_Bendigo_. It is rather strange that no reader or reviewer has ever put
me right on the subject of this Nottingham worthy, for the facts are
plainly stated in the _Dictionary of National Biography_.
ERNEST WEEKLEY.
_NOTTINGHAM, January 1922._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] For a list of these see p. xii.
[2] _Compilatio_, "pillage, polling, robbing" (Cooper).
[3] Among words on which the reader will find either entirely new
information or a modification of generally accepted views are _akimbo_,
_anlace_, _branks_, _caulk_, _cockney_, _felon_ (a whitlow), _foil_,
_kestrel_, _lugger_, _mulligrubs_, _mystery_ (a craft), _oriel_,
_patch_, _petronel_, _salet_, _sentry_, _sullen_, _tret_, etc.
[4] In spite of the fact that the _New English Dictionary_ now finds
_shark_ applied to the fish some years before the first record of
_shark_, a sharper, parasite, I adhere to my belief that the latter is
the earlier sense. The new example quoted, from a Tudor "broadside," is
more suggestive of a sailor's apt nickname than of zoological
nomenclature--"There is no proper name for it that I knowe, but that
sertayne men of Captayne Haukinses doth call it a _sharke_" (1569).
[5] See the author's _Surnames_ (John Murray, 1916), especially pp.
177-83.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. OUR VOCABULARY 1
II. WANDERINGS OF WORDS 17
III. WORDS OF POPULAR MANUFACTURE 29
IV. WORDS AND PLACES 47
V. PHONETIC ACCIDENTS 54
VI. WORDS AND MEANINGS 72
VII. SEMANTICS 86
VIII. METAPHOR 105
IX. FOLK-ETYMOLOGY 113
X. DOUBLETS 139
XI. HOMONYMS 155
XII. FAMILY NAMES 169
XIII. ETYMOLOGICAL FACT AND FICTION 184
INDEX 205
The following dictionaries are quoted without further reference:--
Palsgrave, French and English (1530).
Cooper, Latin and English (1573).
Percyvall, Spanish and English (1591).
Florio, Italian and English (1598).
Cotgrave, French and English (1611).
Torriano, Italian and English (1659).
Hexham, Dutch and English (1660).
Ludwig, German and English (1716).
THE ROMANCE OF WORDS
CHAPTER I
OUR VOCABULARY
The bulk of our literary language is Latin, and consists of words either
borrowed directly or taken from "learned" French forms. The every-day
vocabulary of the less educated is of Old English, commonly called
Anglo-Saxon, origin; and from the same source comes what we may call the
machinery of the language, _i.e._, its inflexions, numerals, pronouns,
prepositions, and conjunctions. Along with Anglo-Saxon, we find a
considerable number of words from the related Norse languages, this
element being naturally strongest in the dialects of the north and east
of England. The third great element of our working vocabulary is
furnished by Old French, _i.e._, the language naturally developed from
the spoken Latin of the Roman soldiers and colonists, generally called
Vulgar Latin. To its composite character English owes its unequalled
richness in expression. For most ideas we have three separate terms, or
groups of terms, which, often starting from the same metaphor, serve to
express different shades of meaning. Thus a deed done with malice
_prepense_ (an Old French compound from Lat. _pensare_, to weigh), is
_deliberate_ or _pondered_, both Latin words which mean literally
"weighed"; but the four words convey four distinct shades of meaning.
The Gk. _sympathy_ is Lat. _compassion_, rendered in English by
_fellow-feeling_.
Sometimes a native word has been completely supplanted by a loan word,
_e.g._, Anglo-Sax. _here_, army (_cf._ Ger. _Heer_), gave way to Old Fr.
_(h)ost_ (p. 158). This in its turn was replaced by _army_, Fr. _armée_,
which, like its Spanish doublet _armada_, is really a feminine past
participle with some word for host, band, etc., understood. _Here_ has
survived in _Hereford_, _harbour_ (p. 164), _harbinger_ (p. 90), etc.,
and in the verb _harry_ (_cf._ Ger. _verheeren_, to harry).
Or a native word may persist in some special sense, e.g., _weed_, a
general term for garment in Shakespeare--
"And there the snake throws her enamel'd skin,
_Weed_ wide enough to wrap a fairy in."
(_Midsummer Night's Dream_, ii. 2.)
survives in "widow's _weeds_." _Chare_, a turn of work--
"the maid that milks
And does the meanest _chares_."
(_Antony and Cleopatra_, iv. 15.)
has given us _charwoman_, and persists as American _chore_--
"Sharlee was ... concluding the post-prandial _chores_."
(H. S. HARRISON, _Queed_, Ch. 17.)
_Sake_, cognate with Ger. _Sache_, thing, cause, and originally meaning
a contention at law, has been replaced by _cause_, except in phrases
beginning with the preposition _for_. See also _bead_ (p. 74).
_Unkempt_, uncombed, and _uncouth_, unknown, are fossil remains of
obsolete verb forms.
In addition to these main constituents of our language, we have borrowed
words, sometimes in considerable numbers, sometimes singly and
accidentally, from almost every tongue known to mankind, and every year
sees new words added to our vocabulary. The following chapters deal
especially with words borrowed from Old French and from the other
Romance languages, their origins and journeyings, and the various
accidents that have befallen them in English. It is in such words as
these that the romance of language is best exemplified, because we can
usually trace their history from Latin to modern English, while the
earlier history of Anglo-Saxon words is a matter for the philologist.
[Page Heading: LATIN WORDS]
Words borrowed directly from Latin or Greek lack this intermediate
experience, though the study of their original meanings is full of
surprises. This, however, is merely a question of opening a Latin or
Greek dictionary, if we have not time for the moment's reflexion which
would serve the same purpose. Thus, to take a dozen examples at random,
to _abominate_[6] is to turn shuddering from the evil _omen_, a
_generous_ man is a man of "race" (_genus_), an _innuendo_ can be
conveyed "by nodding," to _insult_ is to "jump on," a _legend_ is
something "to be read," a _manual_ is a "hand-book," an _obligation_ is
essentially "binding," to _relent_ is to "go slow," _rivals_ are people
living by the same "stream"[7] (_rivus_), a _salary_ is an allowance for
"salt" (_sal_), a _supercilious_ man is fond of lifting his "eyebrows"
(_supercilium_), and a _trivial_ matter is so commonplace that it can be
picked up at the meeting of "three ways" (_trivium_). _Dexterity_
implies skill with the "right" hand (_dexter_), while _sinister_
preserves the superstition of the ill-omened "left."
It may be remarked here that the number of Latin words used in their
unaltered form in every-day English is larger than is generally
realised. Besides such phrases as _bona-fide_, _post-mortem_,
_viva-voce_, or such abbreviations as A.M., _ante meridiem_, D.V., _Deo
volente_, and L. s. d., for _libræ_, _solidi_, _denarii_, we have,
without including scientific terms, many Latin nouns, e.g., _animal_,
_genius_, _index_, _odium_, _omen_, _premium_, _radius_, _scintilla_,
_stimulus_, _tribunal_, and adjectives, e.g., _complex_, _lucifer_,
_miser_, _pauper_, _maximum_, _senior_, and the ungrammatical _bonus_.
The Lat. _veto_, I forbid, has been worked hard of late. The stage has
given us _exit_, he goes out, and the Universities _exeat_, let him go
out, while law language contains a number of Latin verb forms, e.g.,
_affidavit_ (late Latin), he has testified, _caveat_, let him beware,
_cognovit_, he has recognised--
"You gave them a _cognovit_ for the amount of your costs after the
trial, I'm told."
(_Pickwick_, Ch. 46.)
due to the initial words of certain documents. Similarly _item_, also,
is the first word in each paragraph of an inventory. With this we may
compare the _purview_ of a statute, from the Old Fr. _pourveu_
(_pourvu_), provided, with which it used to begin. A _tenet_ is what one
"holds." _Fiat_ means "let it be done." When Mr Weller lamented--
"Oh, Sammy, Sammy, vy worn't there a _alleybi_?"
(_Pickwick_, Ch. 34.)
it is safe to say that he was not consciously using the Latin adverb
_alibi_, elsewhere, nor is the printer who puts in a _viz._ always aware
that this is an old abbreviation for _videlicet_, i.e., _videre licet_,
it is permissible to see. A _nostrum_ is "our" unfailing remedy, and
_tandem_, at length, instead of side by side, is a university joke.
[Page Heading: INFLECTED LATIN FORMS]
Sometimes we have inflected forms of Latin words. A _rebus_[8] is a word
or phrase represented "by things." _Requiem_, accusative of _requies_,
rest, is the first word of the introit used in the mass for the dead--
"_Requiem_ æternam dona eis, Domine,"
while _dirge_ is the Latin imperative _dirige_, from the antiphon in the
same service--
"_Dirige_, Domine meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam."
The spelling _dirige_ was once common--
"Also I byqwethe to eche of the paryshe prystys beying at my
_dyryge_ and masse xiid."
(Will of John Perfay, of Bury St. Edmunds, 1509.)
_Query_ was formerly written _quære_, seek, and _plaudit_ is for
_plaudite_, clap your hands, the appeal of the Roman actors to the
audience at the conclusion of the play--
"Nunc, spectatores, Iovis summi causa clare _plaudite_."
(PLAUTUS, _Amphitruo_.)
_Debenture_ is for _debentur_, there are owing. _Dominie_ is the Latin
vocative _domine_, formerly used by schoolboys in addressing their
master, while _pandy_, a stroke on the hand with a cane, is from _pande
palmam_, hold out your hand. _Parse_ is the Lat. _pars_, occurring in
the question _Quæ pars orationis?_ What part of speech? _Omnibus_, for
all, is a dative plural. _Limbo_ is the ablative of Lat. _limbus_, an
edge, hem, in the phrase "in _limbo_ patrum," where _limbus_ is used for
the abode of the Old Testament saints on the verge of Hades. It is
already jocular in Shakespeare--
"I have some of 'em in _limbo_ patrum, and there they are like to
dance these three days."
(_Henry VIII._, v. 3.)
_Folio_, _quarto_, etc., are ablatives, from the phrases _in folio_, _in
quarto_, etc., still used in French. _Premises_, earlier _premisses_, is
a slightly disguised Lat. _præmissas_, the aforesaid, lit. sent before,
used in deeds to avoid repeating the full description of a property. It
is thus the same word as logical _premisses_, or assumptions. _Quorum_
is from a legal formula giving a list of persons "of whom" a certain
number must be present. A _teetotum_ is so called because it has, or
once had, on one of its sides, a _T_ standing for _totum_, all. It was
also called simply a _totum_. The other three sides also bore letters to
indicate what share, if any, of the stake they represented. Cotgrave has
_totum_ (_toton_), "a kind of game with a whirle-bone." In spite of the
interesting anecdote about the temperance orator with an impediment in
his speech, it was probably _teetotum_ that suggested _teetotaller_.
We have also a few words straight from Greek, e.g., _analysis_, _aroma_,
_atlas_, the world-sustaining demi-god whose picture used to decorate
map-books, _colon_, _comma_, _dogma_, _epitome_, _miasma_, _nausea_, Gk.
{nausia}, lit. sea-sickness, _nectar_, whence the fruit called a
_nectarine_--
"_Nectarine_ fruits which the compliant boughs
Yielded them, sidelong as they sat recline."
(_Paradise Lost_, iv. 332.)
_pathos_, _python_, _pyx_, _synopsis_, etc.; but most of our Greek words
have passed through French _via_ Latin, or are newly manufactured
scientific terms, often most unscientifically constructed.
_Gamut_ contains the Gk. _gamma_ and the Latin conjunction _ut_. Guy
d'Arezzo, who flourished in the 11th century, is said to have introduced
the method of indicating the notes by the letters _a_ to _g_. For the
note below _a_ he used the Gk. _gamma_. To him is attributed also the
series of monosyllables by which the notes are also indicated. They are
supposed to be taken from a Latin hymn to St John--
_Ut_ queant laxis _re_sonare fibris
_Mi_ra gestorum _fa_muli tuorum
_Sol_ve polluti _la_bii reatum
_S_ancte _I_ohannes.
_Do_ is sometimes substituted for _ut_ in French, and always in modern
English.
[Page Heading: FRENCH DIALECTS]
In considering the Old French element in English, one has to bear in
mind a few elementary philological facts. Nearly all French nouns and
adjectives are derived from the accusative. I give, for simplicity, the
nominative, adding the stem in the case of imparisyllabic words. The
foundation of French is Vulgar Latin, which differs considerably from
that we study at school. I only give Vulgar Latin forms where it cannot
be avoided. For instance, in dealing with _culverin_ (p. 38), I connect
Fr. _couleuvre_, adder, with Lat. _cól[)u]ber_, a snake. Every Romance
philologist knows that it must represent Vulgar Lat. _*colóbra_; but
this form, which, being conjectural, is marked with an asterisk, had
better be forgotten by the general reader.
Our modern English words often preserve a French form which no longer
exists, or they are taken from dialects, especially those of Normandy
and Picardy, which differ greatly from that of Paris. The word _caudle_
illustrates both these points. It is the same word as modern Fr.
_chaudeau_, "a _caudle_; or, warme broth" (Cotgrave), but it preserves
the Old French[9] _-el_ for _-eau_, and the Picard _c-_ for _ch-_. An
uncomfortable bridle which used to be employed to silence scolds was
called the _branks_. It is a Scottish word, originally applied to a
bridle improvised from a halter with a wooden "cheek" each side to
prevent it from slipping--
"And then its shanks,
They were as thin, as sharp and sma'
As cheeks o' _branks_."
(BURNS, _Death and Doctor Hornbook_, vii. 4.)
These cheeks correspond to the two parallel levers called the "branches"
of a bridle, and _brank_ is the Norman _branque_, branch. All the
meanings of _patch_ answer to those of Fr. _pièce_. It comes from the
Old French dialect form _peche_, as _match_ comes from _mèche_, and
_cratch_, a manger, from _crèche_, of German origin, and ultimately the
same word as _crib_. _Cratch_ is now replaced, except in dialect, by
_manger_, Fr. _mangeoire_, from _manger_, to eat, but it was the regular
word in Mid. English--
"Sche childide her firste born sone, and wlappide him in clothis,
and puttide in a _cracche_."
(WYCLIF, _Luke_, ii. 7.)
_Pew_ is from Old Fr. _puy_, a stage, eminence, Lat. _podium_, which
survives in _Puy de Dôme_, the mountain in Auvergne on which Pascal made
his experiments with the barometer. _Dupuy_ is a common family name in
France, but the _Depews_ of the West Indies have kept the older
pronunciation.
Many Old French words which live on in England are obsolete in France.
_Chime_ is Old Fr. _chimbe_ from Greco-Lat. _cymbalum_. Minsheu (1617)
derived _dismal_ from Lat. _dies mali_, evil days. This, says Trench,
"is exactly one of those plausible etymologies which one learns after a
while to reject with contempt." But Minsheu is substantially right, if
we substitute Old Fr. _dis mal_, which is found as early as 1256. Old
Fr. _di_, a day, also survives in the names of the days of the week,
_lundi_, etc. In _remainder_ and _remnant_ we have the infinitive and
present participle of an obsolete Old French verb derived from Lat.
_reman[=e]re_. _Manor_ and _power_ are also Old French infinitives, the
first now only used as a noun (_manoir_), the second represented by
_pouvoir_. _Misnomer_ is the Anglo-French infinitive, "to misname."
[Page Heading: INFLECTED FRENCH FORMS]
In some cases we have preserved meanings now obsolete in French.
_Trump_, in cards, is Fr. _triomphe_, "the card game called ruffe, or
_trump_; also, the ruffe, or _trump_ at it" (Cotgrave), but the modern
French word for trump is _atout_, to all. _Rappee_ is for obsolete Fr.
(tabac) _râpé_, pulverised, rasped. Fr. _talon_, heel, from Vulgar Lat.
_*talo_, _talon-_, for _talus_, was applied by falconers to the heel
claw of the hawk. This meaning, obsolete in French, has persisted in
English. The _mizen_ mast is the rearmost of three, but the Fr. _mât de
misaine_ is the fore-mast, and both come from Ital. _mezzana_ middle,
"also the poop or _mizensail_[10] in a ship" (Torriano).
As in the case of Latin, we have some inflected French forms in English.
_Lampoon_ is from the archaic Fr. _lampon_, "a drunken song" (Miège,
_French Dict._, 1688). This is coined from the imperative _lampons_, let
us drink, regularly used as a refrain in seditious and satirical songs.
For the formation we may compare American _vamose_, to skedaddle, from
Span. _vamos_, let us go. The military _revelly_ is the French
imperative _réveillez_, wake up, but in the French army it is called the
_diane_. The _gist_ of a matter is the point in which its importance
really "lies." _Ci-gît_, for Old Fr. _ci-gist_, Lat. _jacet_, here lies,
is seen on old tombstones. _Tennis_, says Minsheu, is so called from Fr.
_tenez_, hold, "which word the Frenchmen, the onely tennis-players, use
to speake when they strike the ball." This etymology, for a long time
regarded as a wild guess, has been shewn by recent research to be most
probably correct. The game is of French origin, and it was played by
French knights in Italy a century before we find it alluded to by Gower
(c. 1400). Erasmus tells us that the server called out _accipe_, to
which his opponent replied _mitte_, and as French, and not Latin, was
certainly the language of the earliest tennis-players, we may infer that
the spectators named the game from the foreign word with which each
service began. In French the game is called _paume_, palm of the hand;
cf. _fives_, also a slang name for the hand. The archaic _assoil_--
"And the holy man he _assoil'd_ us, and sadly we sail'd away."
(TENNYSON, _Voyage of Maeldune_, xi. 12.)
is the present subjunctive of the Old Fr. _asoldre_ (_absoudre_), to
absolve, used in the stereotyped phrase _Dieus asoile_, may God absolve.
A linguistic invasion such as that of English by Old French is almost
unparalleled. We have instances of the expulsion of one tongue by
another, _e.g._, of the Celtic dialects of Gaul by Latin and of those of
Britain by Anglo-Saxon. But a real blending of two languages can only
occur when a large section of the population is bilingual for centuries.
This, as we know, was the case in England. The Norman dialect, already
familiar through inevitable intercourse, was transplanted to England in
1066. It developed further on its own lines into Anglo-Norman, and then,
mixed with other French dialects, for not all the invaders were Normans,
and political events brought various French provinces into relation with
England, it produced Anglo-French, a somewhat barbarous tongue which was
the official language till 1362, and with which our legal jargon is
saturated. We find in Anglo-French many words which are unrecorded in
continental Old French, among them one which we like to think of as
essentially English, viz., _dueté_, duty, an abstract formed from the
past participle of Fr. _devoir_. This verb has also given us
_endeavour_, due to the phrase _se mettre en devoir_--
"Je me suis _en debvoir_ mis pour moderer sa cholere tyrannicque."[11]
(_Rabelais_, i. 29.)
[Page Heading: NEOLOGISMS]
No dictionary can keep up with the growth of a language. The _New
English Dictionary_ had done the letter _C_ before the _cinematograph_
arrived, but got it in under _K_. Words of this kind are manufactured in
such numbers that the lexicographer is inclined to wait and see whether
they will catch on. In such cases it is hard to prophesy. The population
of this country may be divided into those people who have been operated
for _appendicitis_ and those who are going to be. Yet this word was
considered too rare and obscure for insertion in the first volume of the
_New English Dictionary_ (1888), the greatest word-book that has ever
been projected. _Sabotage_ looks, unfortunately, as if it had come to
stay. It is a derivative of _saboter_, to scamp work, from _sabot_, a
wooden shoe, used contemptuously of an inferior article. The great
French dictionaries do not know it in its latest sense of malicious
damage done by strikers, and the _New English Dictionary_, which
finished _Sa-_ in the year 1912, just missed it. _Hooligan_ is not
recorded by the _New English Dictionary_. The original _Hooligans_ were
a spirited Irish family of that name whose proceedings enlivened the
drab monotony of life in Southwark towards the end of the 19th century.
The word is younger than the Australian _larrikin_, of doubtful origin
(see p. 190), but older than Fr. _apache_. The adoption of the Red
Indian name _Apache_ for a modern Parisian bravo is a curious parallel
to the 18th-century use of _Mohock_ (Mohawk) for an aristocratic London
ruffler.
_Heckle_ is first recorded in its political sense for 1880. The _New
English Dictionary_ quotes it from _Punch_ in connection with the Fourth
Party. In Scottish, however, it is old in this sense, so that it is an
example of a dialect word that has risen late in life. Its southern form
_hatchell_ is common in Mid. English in its proper sense of "teasing"
hemp or flax, and the metaphor is exactly the same. _Tease_, earlier
_toose_, means to pluck or pull to pieces, hence the name _teasel_ for
the thistle used by wool-carders. The older form is seen in the
derivative _tousle_, the family name _Tozer_, and the dog's name
_Towser_. _Feckless_, a common Scottish word, was hardly literary
English before Carlyle. It is now quite familiar--
"Thriftless, shiftless, _feckless_."
(Mr LLOYD GEORGE, 1st Nov. 1911.)
There is a certain appropriateness in the fact that almost the first
writer to use it was James I. It is for _effectless_. I never heard of a
_week-end_ till I paid a visit to Lancashire in 1883. It has long since
invaded the whole island. An old _geezer_ has a modern sound, but it is
the medieval _guiser_, _guisard_, mummer, which has persisted in dialect
and re-entered the language.
[Page Heading: WORDS DUE TO ACCIDENT]
The fortunes of a word are sometimes determined by accident. _Glamour_
(see p. 145) was popularised by Scott, who found it in old ballad
literature. _Grail_, the holy dish at the Last Supper, would be much
less familiar but for Tennyson. _Mascot_, from a Provençal word meaning
sorcerer, dates from Audran's operetta _La Mascotte_ (1880). _Jingo_
first appears in conjurors' jargon of the 17th century. It has been
conjectured to represent Basque _jinko_, God, picked up by sailors. If
this is the case, it is probably the only pure Basque word in English.
The Ingoldsby derivation from St Gengulphus--
"Sometimes styled 'The Living _Jingo_,' from the great tenaciousness
of vitality exhibited by his severed members,"
is of course a joke. In 1878, when war with Russia seemed imminent, a
music-hall singer, the Great Macdermott, delighted large audiences
with--
"We don't want to fight, but, by _Jingo_, if we do,
We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too."
Hence the name _jingo_ applied to that ultra-patriotic section of the
population which, in war-time, attends to the shouting.[12] Fr.
_chauvin_, a jingo, is the name of a real Napoleonic veteran introduced
into Scribe's play _Le Soldat Laboureur_. _Barracking_ is known to us
only through the visits of English cricket teams to Australia. It is
said to come from a native Australian word meaning derision. The
American _caucus_ was first applied (1878) by Lord Beaconsfield to the
Birmingham Six Hundred. In 18th-century American it means meeting or
discussion. It is probably connected with a North American Indian
(Algonkin) word meaning counsellor, an etymology supported by that of
_pow-wow_, a palaver or confab, which is the Algonkin for a
medicine-man. With these words may be mentioned _Tammany_, now used of a
famous political body, but, in the 18th century, of a society named
after the "tutelar saint" of Pennsylvania. The original Tammany was an
Indian chief with whom William Penn negotiated for grants of land about
the end of the 17th century. _Littoral_ first became familiar in
connection with Italy's ill-starred Abyssinian adventure, and
_hinterland_ marked the appearance of Germany as a colonial power--
"'Let us glance a moment,' said Mr Queed, 'at Man, as we see him
first emerging from the dark _hinterlands_ of history.'"
(H. S. HARRISON, _Queed_, Ch. 17.)
[Page Heading: BLUNDERS]
Sometimes the blunder of a great writer has enriched the language.
Scott's _bartisan_--
"Its varying circle did combine
Bulwark, and _bartisan_, and line
And bastion, tower ..."
(_Marmion_, vi. 2.)
is a mistake for _bratticing_, timber-work, a word of obscure origin of
which several corruptions are found in early Scottish. It is rather a
favourite with writers of "sword and feather" novels. Other sham
antiques are _slug-horn_, Chatterton's absurd perversion of the Gaelic
_slogan_, war-cry, copied by Browning--
"Dauntless the _slug-horn_ to my lips I set,
And blew 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came.'"
and Scott's extraordinary misuse of _warison_, security, a doublet of
_garrison_, as though it meant "war sound"--
"Or straight they sound their _warison_,
And storm and spoil thy garrison."
(_Lay_, iv. 21.)
Scott also gave currency to _niddering_, a coward--
"Faithless, mansworn,[13] and _niddering_."
(_Ivanhoe_, Ch. 42.)
which has been copied by Lytton and Kingsley, and elaborated into
_nidderling_ by Mr Crockett. It is a misprint in an early edition of
William of Malmesbury for _niding_ or _nithing_, cognate with Ger.
_Neid_, envy. This word, says Camden, is mightier than _Abracadabra_,[14]
since--
"It hath levied armies and subdued rebellious enemies. For when
there was a dangerous rebellion against King William Rufus, and
Rochester Castle, then the most important and strongest fort of this
realm, was stoutly kept against him, after that he had but
proclaimed that his subjects should repair thither to his camp, upon
no other penalty, but that whosoever should refuse to come should be
reputed a _niding_, they swarmed to him immediately from all sides
in such numbers that he had in a few days an infinite army, and the
rebels therewith were so terrified that they forthwith yielded."
(_Remains concerning Britain._)
_Derring-do_ is used several times by Spenser, who explains it as
"manhood and chevalrie." It is due to his misunderstanding of a passage
in Lidgate, in which it is an imitation of Chaucer, complicated by a
misprint. Scott took it from Spenser--
"'Singular,' he again muttered to himself, 'if there be two who can
do a deed of such _derring-do_.'"
(_Ivanhoe_, Ch. 29.)
and from him it passed to Bulwer Lytton and later writers.
Such words as these, the illegitimate offspring of genius, are to be
distinguished from the "ghost-words" which dimly haunt the dictionaries
without ever having lived (see p. 201). Speaking generally, we may say
that no word is ever created _de novo_. The names invented for
commercial purposes are not exceptions to this law. _Bovril_ is
compounded of Lat. _bos_, ox, and _vril_,[15] the mysterious power which
plays so important a part in Lytton's _Coming Race_, while _Tono-Bungay_
suggests _tonic_. The only exception to this is _gas_, the arbitrary
coinage of the Belgian chemist Van Helmont in the 17th century. But even
this is hardly a new creation, because we have Van Helmont's own
statement that the word _chaos_ was vaguely present to his mind.
_Chortle_ has, however, secured a limited currency, and is admitted by
the _New English Dictionary_--
"O frabjous day! Callooh! callay!
He _chortled_ in his joy."
(_Through the Looking-Glass._)
and, though an accurate account of the _boojum_ is lacking, most people
know it to be a dangerous variety of _snark_.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] _Abominable_ is regularly spelt _abhominable_ in late Old French and
Mid. English, as though meaning "inhuman," Lat. _homo_, _homin-_, a man.
[7] This etymology is doubted by some authorities.
[8] But the word comes to us from French. In the 16th century such
puzzles were called _rébus de Picardie_, because of their popularity in
that province.
[9] For simplicity the term Old French is used here to include all words
not in modern use. Where a modern form exists it is given in
parentheses.
[10] The name was thus applied to a sail before it was given to a mast.
Although the Italian word means "middle," it is perhaps, in this
particular sense, a popular corruption of an Arabic word of quite
different meaning. The discussion of so difficult a problem is rather
out of place in a book intended for the general reader, but I cannot
refrain from giving a most interesting note which I owe to Mr W. B.
Whall, Master Mariner, the author of _Shakespeare's Sea Terms
Explained_--"The sail was (until c. 1780) lateen, _i.e._, triangular,
like the sail of a galley. The Saracens, or Moors, were the great galley
sailors of the Mediterranean, and _mizen_ comes from Arab., _miezên_,
balance. The _mizen_ is, even now, a sail that 'balances,' and the reef
in a mizen is still called the 'balance' reef."
[11] "I have _endeavoured_ to moderate his tyrannical choler"
(Urquhart's Translation, 1653).
[12] The credit of first using the word in the political sense is
claimed both for George Jacob Holyoake and Professor Minto.
[13] From Anglo-Sax. _m[=a]n_, deceit, cognate with the first syllable
of Ger. _Meineid_, perjury.
[14] This word, which looks like an unsuccessful palindrome, belongs to
the language of medieval magic. It seems to be artificially elaborated
from {abraxas}, a word of Persian origin used by a sect of Greek
gnostics. Its letters make up the magic number 365, supposed to
represent the number of spirits subject to the supreme being.
[15] In coining _vril_ Lytton probably had in mind Lat. _vis_, _vires_,
power, or the adjective _virilis_.
CHAPTER II
WANDERINGS OF WORDS
In assigning to a word a foreign origin, it is necessary to show how
contact between the two languages has taken place, or the particular
reasons which have brought about the borrowing. A Chinese word cannot
suddenly make its appearance in Anglo-Saxon, though it may quite well do
so in modern English. No nautical terms have reached us from the coast
of Bohemia (_Winter's Tale_, iii. 3), nor is the vocabulary of the wine
trade enriched by Icelandic words. Although we have words from all the
languages of Europe, our direct borrowings from some of them have been
small. The majority of High German words in English have passed through
Old French, and we have taken little from modern German. On the other
hand, commerce has introduced a great many words from the old Low German
dialects of the North Sea and the Baltic.
The Dutch[16] element in English supplies a useful object lesson on the
way in which the borrowing of words naturally takes place. As a great
naval power, the Dutch have contributed to our nautical vocabulary a
number of words, many of which are easily recognised as near relations;
such are _boom_ (beam), _skipper_ (shipper), _orlop_ (over leap), the
name given to a deck which "over-runs" the ship's hold. _Yacht_,
properly a "hunting" ship, is cognate with Ger. _Jagd_, hunting, but has
no English kin. Hexham has _jaght_, "zee-roovers schip, pinace, or
pirats ship." The modern Dutch spelling is _jacht_. We should expect to
find art terms from the country of Hobbema, Rubens, Vandyke, etc. See
_easel_ (p. 39), _etch_ (p. 133), _lay-figure_ (p. 166), _sketch_ (p.
22). _Landscape_, earlier _landskip_, has the suffix which in English
would be _-ship_. In the 16th century Camden speaks of "a _landskip_, as
they call it." The Low Countries were for two centuries the cock-pit of
Europe, and many military terms were brought back to England by Dugald
Dalgetty and the armies which "swore terribly in Flanders." Such are
_cashier_ (p. 157), _forlorn hope_ (p. 129), _tattoo_ (p. 162). Other
interesting military words are _leaguer_ (lair), recently re-introduced
from South Africa as _laager_, and _furlough_. The latter word, formerly
pronounced to rime with _cough_, is from Du. _verlof_ (for leave); _cf._
archaic Ger. _Verlaub_, now replaced by _Urlaub_. _Knapsack_,[17] a food
sack, comes from colloquial Du. _knap_, food, or what the Notts colliers
call _snap_. We also find it called a _snapsack_. Both _knap_ and _snap_
contain the idea of "crunching"--
"I would she (Report) were as lying a gossip in that as ever
_knapped_ ginger."
(_Merchant of Venice_, iii. 1.)
_Roster_ (roaster) is the Dutch for gridiron, the allusion being to the
parallel lines of the list or plan; for a somewhat similar metaphor cf.
_cancel_ (p. 88). The pleasant fiction that--
"The children of Holland take pleasure in making
What the children of England take pleasure in breaking,"
confirms the derivation of _toy_ from Du. _tuig_, implement, thing,
stuff, etc., a word, like its German cognate _Zeug_, with an infinity of
meanings. We now limit _toy_ to the special sense represented by Du.
_speel-tuig_, play-thing.
[Page Heading: DISAPPEARANCE OF CELTIC]
Our vocabulary dealing with war and fortification is chiefly French, but
most of the French terms come from Italian. Addison wrote an article in
No. 165 of the _Spectator_ ridiculing the Frenchified character of the
military language of his time, and, in the 16th century, Henri Estienne,
patriot, printer, and philologist, lamented that future historians would
believe, from the vocabulary employed, that France had learnt the art of
war from Italy. As a matter of fact she did. The earliest writers on the
new tactics necessitated by villainous saltpetre were Italians trained
in condottiere warfare. They were followed by the great French theorists
and engineers of the 16th and 17th centuries, who naturally adopted a
large number of Italian terms which thus passed later into English.
A considerable number of Spanish and Portuguese words have reached us in
a very roundabout way (see pp. 23-7). This is not surprising when we
consider how in the 15th and 16th centuries the world was dotted with
settlements due to the Portuguese and Spanish adventurers who had a
hundred years' start of our own.
There are very few Celtic words either in English or French. In each
country the result of conquest was, from the point of view of language,
complete. A few words from the Celtic languages have percolated into
English in comparatively recent times, but many terms which we associate
with the picturesque Highlanders are not Gaelic at all.[18] _Tartan_
comes through French from the _Tartars_ (see p. 47); _kilt_ is a
Scandinavian verb, "to tuck up," and _dirk_,[19] of unknown origin,
first appears about 1600. For _trews_ see p. 117.
A very interesting part of our vocabulary, the _canting_, or rogues',
language, dates mostly from the 17th and 18th centuries, and includes
contributions from most of the European languages, together with a large
Romany element. The early dictionary makers paid great attention to this
aspect of the language. Elisha Coles, who published a fairly complete
English dictionary in 1676, says in his preface, "'Tis no disparagement
to understand the canting terms: it may chance to save your throat from
being cut, or (at least), your pocket from being pick'd."
Words often go long journeys. _Boss_ is in English a comparatively
modern Americanism. But, like many American words, it belongs to the
language of the Dutch settlers who founded New Amsterdam (New York). It
is Du. _baas_, master, which has thus crossed the Atlantic twice on its
way from Holland to England. A number of Dutch words became familiar to
us about the year 1900 in consequence of the South African war. One of
them, _slim_, 'cute, seems to have been definitely adopted. It is
cognate with Ger. _schlimm_, bad, and Eng. _slim_, slender, and the
latter word has for centuries been used in the Eastern counties in the
very sense in which it has now been re-introduced.
_Apricot_ is a much travelled word. It comes to us from Fr. _abricot_,
while the Shakespearean _apricock_--
"Feed him with _apricocks_ and dewberries."
(_Midsummer Night's Dream_, iii. 1.)
represents the Spanish or Portuguese form. Ger. _Aprikose_ comes, _via_
Dutch, from the French plural. The word was adopted into the Romance
languages from Arab. _al-barquq_, where _al_ is the definite article
(_cf._ examples on p. 115), while _barquq_ comes, through medieval
Greek, from Vulgar Lat. _præcoquum_, for _præcox_, early-ripe. Thus the
word first crossed the Adriatic, passed on to Asia Minor or the North
coast of Africa, and then travelling along the Mediterranean re-entered
Southern Europe.
[Page Heading: ARABIC TRADE WORDS]
Many other Arabic trade words have a similar history. _Carat_ comes to
us, through French, from Italian _carato_, "a waight or degree called a
_caract_" (Florio). The Italian word is from Arabic, but the Arabic form
is a corruption of Gk. {keration}, fruit of the locust tree, lit. little
horn, also used of a small weight. The verb to _garble_, now used only
of confusing or falsifying,[20] meant originally to sort or sift,
especially spices--
"_Garbler_ of spices is an officer of great antiquity in the city of
London, who may enter into any shop, warehouse, etc., to view and
search drugs, spices, etc., and to _garble_ the same and make them
clean."
(Cowel's _Interpreter_.)
It represents Span. _garbellar_, from _garbello_, a sieve. This comes
from Arab. _ghirb[=a]l_, a sieve, borrowed from Lat. _cribellum_,
diminutive of _cribrum_. _Quintal_, an old word for hundred-weight,
looks as if it had something to do with five. Fr. and Span. _quintal_
are from Arab. _qintar_, hundred-weight, which is Lat. _centenarium_
(whence directly Ger. _Zentner_, hundred-weight). The French word passed
into Dutch, and gave, with a diminutive ending, _kindekijn_, now
replaced by _kinnetje_, a firkin.[21] We have adopted it as _kilderkin_,
but have doubled its capacity. With these examples of words that have
passed through Arabic may be mentioned _talisman_, not a very old word
in Europe, from Arab. _tilsam_, magic picture, ultimately from Gk.
{telein}, to initiate into mysteries, lit. to accomplish, and _effendi_,
a Turkish corruption of Gk. {authentês}, a master, whence Lat.
_authentic_.
_Hussar_ seems to be a late Latin word which passed into Greece and then
entered Central Europe _via_ the Balkans. It comes into 16th-century
German from Hungar. _huszar_, freebooter. This is from a Serbian word
which means also pirate. It represents medieval Gk. {koursarios}, a
transliteration of Vulgar Lat. _cursarius_, from _currere_, to run,
which occurs also with the sense of pirate in medieval Latin. _Hussar_
is thus a doublet of _corsair_. The immediate source of _sketch_ is Du.
_schets_, "draught of any picture" (Hexham), from Ital. _schizzo_, "an
ingrosement or first rough draught of anything" (Florio), whence also
Fr. _esquisse_ and Ger. _Skizze_. The Italian word represents Greco-Lat.
_schedium_, an extempore effort.
_Assassin_ and _slave_ are of historic interest. _Assassin_, though not
very old in English, dates from the Crusades. Its oldest European form
is Ital. _assassino_, and it was adopted into French in the 16th
century. Henri Estienne, whose fiery patriotism entered even into
philological questions, reproaches his countrymen for using foreign
terms. They should only adopt, he says, Italian words which express
Italian qualities hitherto unknown to the French, such as _assassin_,
_charlatan_, _poltron_! _Assassin_ is really a plural, from the
_hachaschin_, eaters of the drug _haschish_, who executed the decrees of
the Old Man of the Mountains. It was one of these who stabbed Edward
Longshanks at Acre. The first _slaves_ were captive _Slavonians_. We
find the word in most of the European languages. The fact that none of
the Western tribes of the race called themselves _Slavs_ or _Slavonians_
shows that the word could not have entered Europe _via_ Germany, where
the Slavs were called Wends. It must have come from the Byzantine empire
_via_ Italy.
Some Spanish words have also come to us by the indirect route. The
_cocoa_ which is grateful and comforting was formerly spelt _cacao_, as
in French and German. It is a Mexican word. The _cocoa_ of _cocoa-nut_
is for _coco_, a Spanish baby-word for an ugly face or bogie-man. The
black marks at one end of the nut give it, especially before the removal
of the fibrous husk, some resemblance to a ferocious face. Stevens
(1706) explains _coco_ as "the word us'd to fright children; as we say
the Bulbeggar."
[Page Heading: COW-BOY WORDS]
_Mustang_ seems to represent two words, _mestengo y mostrenco_, "a
straier" (Percyvall). The first appears to be connected with _mesta_, "a
monthly fair among herdsmen; also, the laws to be observed by all that
keep or deal in cattle" (Stevens), and the second with _mostrar_, to
show, the finder being expected to advertise a stray. The original
_mustangs_ were of course descended from the strayed horses of the
Spanish _conquistadors_. _Ranch_, Span. _rancho_, a row (of huts), is a
doublet of _rank_, from Fr. _rang_, Old Fr. _reng_, Old High Ger.
_hring_, a ring. Thus what is now usually straight was once circular,
the ground idea of ar_range_ment surviving. Another doublet is Fr.
_harangue_, due to the French inability to pronounce _hr-_ (see p. 55),
a speech delivered in the ring. _Cf._ also Ital. _aringo_, "a riding or
carreering place, a liste for horses, or feates of armes: a declamation,
an oration, a noise, a common loud speech" (Florio), in which the "ring"
idea is also prominent.
Other "cow-boy" words of Spanish origin are the less familiar _cinch_,
girth of a horse, Span. _cincha_, from Lat. _cingula_, also used
metaphorically--
"The state of the elements enabled Mother Nature 'to get a _cinch_'
on an honourable æstheticism."
(Snaith, _Mrs Fitz_, Ch. 1.)
and the formidable riding-whip called a _quirt_, Span. _cuerda_, cord--
"Whooping and swearing as they plied the _quirt_."
(Masefield, _Rosas_.)
Stories of Californian life often mention Span. _reata_, a tethering
rope, from the verb _reatar_, to bind together, Lat. _re-aptare_.
Combined with the definite article (_la reata_) it has given _lariat_, a
familiar word in literature of the Buffalo Bill character. _Lasso_,
Span. _lazo_, Lat. _laqueus_, snare, is a doublet of Eng. _lace_.
When, in the _Song of Hiawatha_--
"Gitche Manito, the mighty,
Smoked the _calumet_, the Peace-pipe,
As a signal to the nations,"
he was using an implement with a French name. _Calumet_ is an Old Norman
word for _chalumeau_, reed, pipe, a diminutive from Lat. _calamus_. It
was naturally applied by early French voyagers to the "long reed for a
pipe-stem." Eng. _shawm_ is the same word without the diminutive ending.
Another Old French word, once common in English, but now found only in
dialect, is _felon_, a whitlow. It is used more than once by Mr Hardy--
"I've been visiting to Bath because I had a _felon_ on my thumb."
(_Far from the Madding Crowd_, Ch. 33.)
This is still an every-day word in Canada and the United States. It is a
metaphorical use of _felon_, a fell villain. A whitlow was called in
Latin _furunculus_, "a little theefe; a sore in the bodie called a
_fellon_" (Cooper), whence Fr. _furoncle_, or _froncle_, "the hot and
hard bumpe, or swelling, tearmed, a _fellon_" (Cotgrave). Another Latin
name for it was _tagax_, "a _felon_ on a man's finger" (Cooper), lit.
thievish. One of its Spanish names is _padrastro_, lit. step-father. I
am told that an "agnail" was formerly called a "step-mother" in
Yorkshire. This is a good example of the semantic method in etymology
(see pp. 99-104).
[Page Heading: PORTUGUESE WORDS]
Some of the above instances show how near to home we can often track a
word which at first sight appears to belong to another continent. This
is still more strikingly exemplified in the case of Portuguese words,
which have an almost uncanny way of pretending to be African or Indian.
Some readers will, I think, be surprised to hear that _assegai_ occurs
in Chaucer, though in a form not easily recognisable. It is a Berber
word which passed through Spanish and Portuguese into French and
English. We find Fr. _archegaie_ in the 14th century, _azagaie_ in
Rabelais, and the modern form _zagaie_ in Cotgrave, who describes it as
"a fashion of slender, long, and long-headed pike, used by the Moorish
horsemen." In Mid. English _l'archegaie_ was corrupted by folk-etymology
(see p. 115) into _lancegay_, _launcegay_, the form used by Chaucer--
"He worth upon his stede gray,
And in his hond a _launcegay_,
A long swerd by his syde."
(_Sir Thopas_, l. 40.)
The use of this weapon was prohibited by statute in 1406, hence the
early disappearance of the word.
Another "Zulu" word which has travelled a long way is _kraal_. This is a
contracted Dutch form from Port. _curral_, a sheepfold (_cf._ Span.
_corral_, a pen, enclosure). Both _assegai_ and _kraal_ were taken to
South East Africa by the Portuguese and then adopted by the Boers and
Kafirs.[22] _Sjambok_ occurs in 17th-century accounts of India in the
form _chawbuck_. It is a Persian word, spelt _chabouk_ by Moore, in
_Lalla Rookh_. It was adopted by the Portuguese as _chabuco_, "in the
Portuguese India, a whip or scourge"[23] (Vieyra, _Port. Dict._, 1794).
_Fetish_, an African idol, first occurs in the records of the early
navigators, collected and published by Hakluyt and Purchas. It is the
Port. _feitiço_, Lat. _factitius_, artificial, applied by the Portuguese
explorers to the graven images of the heathen. The corresponding Old Fr.
_faitis_ is rather a complimentary adjective, and everyone remembers the
lady in Chaucer who spoke French fairly and _fetousli_. _Palaver_, also
a travellers' word from the African coast, is Port. _palavra_, word,
speech, Greco-Lat. _parabola_. It is thus a doublet of _parole_ and
_parable_, and is related to _parley_. _Ayah_, an Indian nurse, is Port.
_aia_, nurse, of unknown origin. _Caste_ is Port. _casta_, pure, and a
doublet of _chaste_. _Tank_, an Anglo-Indian word of which the meaning
has narrowed in this country, is Port. _tanque_, a pool or cistern, Lat.
_stagnum_, whence Old Fr. _estang_ (_étang_) and provincial Eng.
_stank_, a dam, or a pond banked round. _Cobra_ is the Portuguese for
snake, cognate with Fr. _couleuvre_, Lat. _coluber_ (see p. 7). We use
it as an abbreviation for _cobra de capello_, hooded snake, the second
part of which is identical with Fr. _chapeau_ and cognate with _cape_,
_chapel_ (p. 152), _chaplet_, a garland, and _chaperon_, a "protecting"
hood. From still further afield than India comes _joss_, a Chinese god,
a corruption of Port. _deos_, Lat. _deus_. Even _mandarin_ comes from
Portuguese, and not Chinese, but it is an Eastern word, ultimately of
Sanskrit origin.
[Page Heading: GORILLA--SILK]
The word _gorilla_ is perhaps African, but more than two thousand years
separate its first appearance from its present use. In the 5th or 6th
century, B.C., a Carthaginian navigator named Hanno sailed beyond the
Pillars of Hercules along the west coast of Africa. He probably followed
very much the same route as Sir Richard Dalyngridge and Saxon Hugh when
they voyaged with Witta the Viking. He wrote in Punic a record of his
adventures, which was received with the incredulity usually accorded to
travellers' tales. Among the wonders he encountered were some hairy
savages called _gorillas_. His work was translated into Greek and later
on into several European languages, so that the word became familiar to
naturalists. In 1847 it was applied to the giant ape, which had recently
been described by explorers.
The origin of the word _silk_ is a curious problem. It is usually
explained as from Greco-Lat. _sericum_, a name derived from an Eastern
people called the _Seres_, presumably the Chinese. It appears in
Anglo-Saxon as _seolc_. Now, at that early period, words of Latin origin
came to us by the overland route and left traces of their passage. But
all the Romance languages use for silk a name derived from Lat. _sæta_,
bristle, and this name has penetrated even into German (_Seide_) and
Dutch (_zijde_). The derivatives of _sericum_ stand for another
material, _serge_. Nor can it be assumed that the _r_ of the Latin word
would have become in English always _l_ and never _r_. There are races
which cannot sound the letter _r_, but we are not one of them. As the
word _silk_ is found also in Old Norse, Swedish, Danish, and Old
Slavonian, the natural inference is that it must have reached us along
the north of Europe, and, if derived from _sericum_, it must, in the
course of its travels, have passed through a dialect which had no _r_.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] This includes Flemish, spoken in a large part of Belgium and in the
North East of France.
[17] _Haversack_, oat-sack, comes through French from German.
[18] This applies also to some of the clan names, e.g., _Macpherson_,
son of the parson, _Macnab_, son of the abbot.
[19] My own conviction is that it is identical with Dan. _dirik_,
_dirk_, a pick-lock. See _Dietrich_ (p. 42). An implement used for
opening an enemy may well have been named in this way. _Cf._ Du.
_opsteeker_ (up sticker), "a pick-lock, a great knife, or a dagger"
(Sewel, 1727).
[20] "It was a wholly _garbled_ version of what never took place" (Mr
Birrell, in the House, 26th Oct. 1911). The bull appears to be a
laudable concession to Irish national feeling.
[21] Formerly _ferdekin_, a derivative of Du. _vierde_, fourth; cf.
_farthing_, a little fourth.
[22] _Kafir_ (Arab.) means infidel.
[23] Eng. _chawbuck_ is used in connection with the punishment we call
the _bastinado_. This is a corruption of Span. _bastonada_, "a stroke
with a club or staff" (Stevens, 1706). On the other hand, we extend the
meaning of _drub_, the Arabic word for _bastinado_, to a beating of any
kind.
CHAPTER III
WORDS OF POPULAR MANUFACTURE
In a sense, all nomenclature, apart from purely scientific language, is
popular. But real meanings are often so rapidly obscured that words
become mere labels, and cease to call up the image or the poetic idea
with which they were first associated. To take a simple instance, how
many people realise that the _daisy_ is the "day's eye"?--
"Wele by reson men it calle may
The _dayeseye_ or ellis the 'eye of day.'"
(CHAUCER, _Legend of Good Women_, Prol., l. 184.)
In studying that part of our vocabulary which especially illustrates the
tendencies shown in popular name-giving, one is struck by the keen
observation and imaginative power shown by our far-off ancestors, and
the lack of these qualities in later ages.
Perhaps in no part of the language does this appear so clearly as in the
names of plants and flowers. The most primitive way of naming a flower
is from some observed resemblance, and it is curious to notice the
parallelism of this process in various languages. Thus our _crowfoot_,
_crane's bill_, _larkspur_, _monkshood_, _snapdragon_, are in German
_Hahnenfuss_ (cock's foot), _Storchschnabel_ (stork's bill),
_Rittersporn_ (knight's spur), _Eisenhut_ (iron hat), _Löwenmaul_
(lion's mouth). I have purposely chosen instances in which the
correspondence is not absolute, because examples like _Löwenzahn_
(lion's tooth), _dandelion_ (Fr. _dent de lion_) may be suspected of
being mere translations. I give the names in most general use, but the
provincial variants are numerous, though usually of the same type. The
French names of the flowers mentioned are still more like the English.
The more learned words which sometimes replace the above are, though now
felt as mere symbols, of similar origin, e.g., _geranium_ and
_pelargonium_, used for the cultivated _crane's bill_, are derived from
the Greek for crane and stork respectively. So also in _chelidonium_,
whence our _celandine_ or _swallow-wort_, we have the Greek for swallow.
In the English names of plants we observe various tendencies of the
popular imagination. We have the crudeness of _cowslip_ for earlier
_cowslop_, cow-dung, and many old names of unquotable coarseness, the
quaintness of _Sweet William_, _lords and ladies_, _bachelors' buttons_,
_dead men's fingers_, and the exquisite poetry of _forget-me-not_,
_heart's ease_, _love in a mist_, _traveller's joy_. There is also a
special group named from medicinal properties, such as _feverfew_, a
doublet of _febrifuge_, and _tansy_, Fr. _tanaisie_, from Greco-Lat.
_athanasia_, immortality. We may compare the learned _saxifrage_,
stone-breaker, of which the Spanish doublet is _sassafras_. The German
name is _Steinbrech_.
There must have been a time when a simple instinct for poetry was
possessed by all nations, as it still is by uncivilised races and
children. Among European nations this instinct appears to be dead for
ever. We can name neither a mountain nor a flower. Our Mount Costigan,
Mount Perry, Mount William cut a sorry figure beside the peaks of the
Bernese Oberland, the Monk, the Maiden, the Storm Pike, the Dark Eagle
Pike.[24] Occasionally a race which is accidentally brought into closer
contact with nature may have a happy inspiration, such as the
_Drakensberg_ (dragon's mountain) or _Weenen_[25] (weeping) of the old
_voortrekkers_. But the Cliff of the Falling Flowers, the name of a
precipice over which the Korean queens cast themselves to escape
dishonour, represents an imaginative realm which is closed to us.[26]
The botanist who describes a new flower hastens to join the company of
Messrs _Dahl_, _Fuchs_, _Lobel_, _Magnol_ and _Wistar_, while fresh
varieties are used to immortalise a florist and his family.
[Page Heading: NAMES OF FRUITS]
The names of fruits, perhaps because they lend themselves less easily to
imaginative treatment, are even duller than modern names of flowers. The
only English names are the _apple_ and the _berry_. New fruits either
retained their foreign names (_cherry_, _peach_, _pear_, _quince_) or
were violently converted into _apples_ or _berries_, usually the former.
This practice is common to the European languages, the _apple_ being
regarded as the typical fruit. Thus the orange is usually called in
North Germany _Apfelsine_, apple of China, with which we may compare our
"China orange." In South Germany it was called _Pomeranze_ (now used
especially of the Seville orange), from Ital. _pomo_, apple, _arancia_,
orange. Fr. _orange_ is folk-etymology (_or_, gold) for _*arange_, from
Arab. _narandj_, whence Span. _naranja_. _Melon_ is simply the Greek for
"apple," and has also given us _marmalade_, which comes, through French,
from Port. _marmelada_, quince jam, a derivative of Greco-Lat.
_melimelum_, quince, lit. honey-apple. _Pine-apple_ meant "fir-cone" as
late as the 17th century, as Fr. _pomme de pin_ still does.[27] The
fruit was named from its shape, which closely resembles that of a
fir-cone. _Pomegranate_ means "apple with seeds." We also find the
apricot, lemon (_pomcitron_), peach, and quince all described as apples.
At least one fruit, the _greengage_, is named from a person, Sir William
Gage, a gentleman of Suffolk, who popularised its cultivation early in
the 18th century. It happens that the French name of the fruit,
_reine-claude_ (pronounced _glaude_), is also personal, from the wife of
Francis I.
Animal nomenclature shows some strange vagaries. The resemblance of the
_hippopotamus_, lit. river-horse, to the horse, hardly extends beyond
their common possession of four legs.[28] The lion would hardly
recognise himself in the _ant-lion_ or the _sea-lion_, still less in the
_chameleon_, lit. earth-lion, the first element of which occurs also in
_camomile_, earth-apple. The _guinea-pig_ is not a pig, nor does it come
from Guinea (see p. 51). _Porcupine_ means "spiny pig." It has an
extraordinary number of early variants, and Shakespeare wrote it
_porpentine_. One Mid. English form was _porkpoint_. The French name has
hesitated between _spine_ and _spike_. The modern form is _porc-épic_,
but Palsgrave has "_porkepyn_ a beest, _porc espin_." _Porpoise_ is from
Old Fr. _porpeis_, for _porc peis_ (Lat. _porcus piscis_), pig-fish. The
modern French name is _marsouin_, from Ger. _Meerschwein_, sea-pig;
_cf._ the name _sea-hog_, formerly used in English. Old Fr. _peis_
survives also in _grampus_, Anglo-Fr. _grampais_ for _grand peis_, big
fish, but the usual Old French word is _craspeis_ or _graspeis_, fat
fish.
The _caterpillar_ seems to have suggested in turn a cat and a dog. Our
word is corrupted by folk-etymology from Old Fr. _chatepeleuse_, "a
corne-devouring mite, or weevell" (Cotgrave). This probably means
"woolly cat," just as a common species is popularly called _woolly
bear_, but it was understood as being connected with the French verb
_peler_, "to _pill_, pare, barke, unrinde, unskin" (Cotgrave). The
modern French name for the caterpillar is _chenille_, a derivative of
_chien_, dog. It has also been applied to a fabric of a woolly nature;
_cf._ the botanical _catkin_, which is in French _chaton_, kitten.
[Page Heading: NICKNAMES OF ANIMALS]
Some animals bear nicknames. _Dotterel_ means "dotard," and _dodo_ is
from the Port. _doudo_, mad. _Ferret_ is from Fr. _furet_, a diminutive
from Lat. _fur_, thief. _Shark_ was used of a sharper or greedy parasite
before it was applied to the fish. This, in the records of the
Elizabethan voyagers, is more often called by its Spanish name
_tiburon_, whence Cape Tiburon, in Haiti. The origin of _shark_ is
unknown, but it appears to be identical with _shirk_, for which we find
earlier _sherk_. We find Ital. _scrocco_ (whence Fr. _escroc_), Ger.
_Schurke_, Du. _schurk_, rascal, all rendered "shark" in early
dictionaries, but the relationship of these words is not clear. The
_palmer_, _i.e._ pilgrim, worm is so called from his wandering habits.
_Ortolan_, the name given by Tudor cooks to the garden bunting, means
"gardener" (Lat. _hortus_, garden). It comes to us through French from
Ital. _ortolano_, "a gardener, an orchard keeper. Also a kinde of
daintie birde in Italie, some take it to be the linnet" (Florio). We may
compare Fr. _bouvreuil_, bull-finch, a diminutive of _bouvier_, ox-herd.
This is called in German _Dompfaffe_, a contemptuous name for a
cathedral canon. Fr. _moineau_, sparrow, is a diminutive of _moine_,
monk. The wagtail is called in French _lavandière_, laundress, from the
up and down motion of its tail suggesting the washerwoman's beetle, and
_bergeronnette_, little shepherdess, from its habit of following the
sheep. _Adjutant_, the nickname of the solemn Indian stork, is clearly
due to Mr Atkins, and the _secretary_ bird is so named because some of
his head feathers suggest a quill pen behind an ear.
The converse process of people being nicknamed from animals is also
common and the metaphor is usually pretty obvious. An interesting case
is _shrew_, a libel on a very inoffensive little animal, the
_shrew-mouse_, Anglo-Sax. _scr[=e]awa_. Cooper describes _mus araneus_
as "a kinde of mise called a _shrew_, which if he go over a beastes
backe he shall be lame in the chyne; if he byte it swelleth to the heart
and the beast dyeth." This "information" is derived from Pliny, but the
superstition is found in Greek. The epithet was, up to Shakespeare's
time, applied indifferently to both sexes. From _shrew_ is derived
_shrewd_, earlier _shrewed_,[29] the meaning of which has become much
milder than when Henry VIII. said to Cranmer--
"The common voice I see is verified
Of thee which says, 'Do my lord of Canterbury
A _shrewd_ turn, and he's your friend for ever.'"
(_Henry VIII._, v. 2.)
The title _Dauphin_, lit. dolphin, commemorates the absorption into the
French monarchy, in 1349, of the lordship of Dauphiné, the cognisance of
which was three dolphins.
The application of animals' names to diseases is a familiar phenomenon,
e.g., _cancer_ (and _canker_), crab, and _lupus_, wolf. To this class
belongs _mulligrubs_, for which we find in the 17th century also _mouldy
grubs_. Its oldest meaning is stomach-ache, still given in Hotten's
Slang Dictionary (1864). _Mully_ is still used in dialect for mouldy,
earthy, and _grub_ was once the regular word for worm. The Latin name
for the same discomfort was _verminatio_, from _vermis_, a worm. For the
later transition of meaning we may compare _megrims_, from Fr.
_migraine_, head-ache, Greco-Lat. _hemicrania_, lit. half-skull, because
supposed to affect one side only of the head.
A good many names of plants and animals have a religious origin.
_Hollyhock_ is for _holy hock_, from Anglo-Sax. _hoc_, mallow: for the
pronunciation cf. _holiday_. _Halibut_ means _holy butt_, the latter
word being an old name for flat fish; for this form of _holy_ cf.
_halidom_. _Lady_ in names of flowers such as _lady's bedstraw_, _lady's
garter_, _lady's slipper_, is for Our Lady. So also in _lady-bird_,
called in French _bête à bon Dieu_ and in German _Marienkäfer_, Mary's
beetle. Here may be mentioned _samphire_, from Old Fr. _herbe de Saint
Pierre_, "sampire, crestmarin" (Cotgrave). The _filbert_, earlier
_philibert_, is named from St Philibert, the nut being ripe by St
Philibert's day (22nd Aug.). We may compare Ger. _Lambertsnuss_,
filbert, originally "Lombard nut," but popularly associated with St
Lambert's day (17th Sept.).
[Page Heading: BAPTISMAL NAMES OF ANIMALS]
The application of baptismal names to animals is a very general
practice, though the reason for the selection of the particular name is
not always clear. The most famous of such names is _Renard_ the Fox. The
Old French for fox is _goupil_, a derivative of Lat. _vulpes_, fox. The
hero of the great beast epic of the Middle Ages is _Renard le goupil_,
and the fact that _renard_ now completely supplanted _goupil_ shows how
popular the Renard legends must have been. _Renard_ is from Old High
Ger. _regin-hart_, strong in counsel; _cf._ our names _Reginald_ and
_Reynold_, and Scot. _Ronald_, of Norse origin. From the same source
come _Chantecler_, lit. sing-clear, the cock, and _Partlet_, the hen,
while _Bruin_, the bear, lit. "brown," is from the Dutch version of the
epic. In the Low German version, _Reinke de Vos_, the ape's name is
_Moneke_, a diminutive corresponding to Ital. _monicchio_, "a pugge, a
_munkie_, an ape" (Florio), the earlier history of which is much
disputed. The cat was called _Tibert_ or _Theobald_--
MERCUTIO. "_Tybalt_, you rat-catcher, will you walk?"
TYBALT. "What wouldst thou have with me?"
MERCUTIO. "Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives."
(_Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 1.)
The fact that the donkey was at one time regularly called _Cuddy_ made
_Cuthbert_ for a long period unpopular as a baptismal name. He is now
often called _Neddy_. The hare was called _Wat_ (_Walter_) in Tudor
times. In the _Roman de Renard_ he is _Couard_, whence _coward_, a
derivative of Old Fr. _coue_ (_queue_), tail, from Lat. _cauda_. The
idea is that of the tail between the legs, so that the name is
etymologically not very appropriate to the hare. _Parrot_, for earlier
_perrot_, means "little Peter." The extension _Poll parrot_ is thus a
kind of hermaphrodite. Fr. _pierrot_ is still used for the sparrow. The
family name _Perrot_ is sometimes a nickname, "the chatterer," but can
also mean literally "little Peter," just as _Emmot_ means "little Emma,"
and _Marriot_ "little Mary." _Petrel_ is of cognate origin, with an
allusion to St Peter's walking upon the sea; _cf._ its German name,
_Sankt Peters Vogel_. Sailors call the petrel _Mother Carey's chicken_,
probably a nautical corruption of some old Spanish or Italian name.
But, in spite of ingenious guesses, this lady's genealogy remains as
obscure as that of Davy Jones or the Jolly Roger.
[Page Heading: NAMES OF BIRDS]
_Robin_ has practically replaced _red-breast_. The _martin_ is in French
_martinet_, and the name may have been given in allusion to the
southward flight of this swallow about Martinmas; but the king-fisher,
not a migrant bird, is called _martin-pêcheur_, formerly also _martinet
pêcheur_ or _oiseau de Saint-Martin_, so that _martin_ may be due to
some other association. Sometimes the double name survives. We no longer
say _Philip sparrow_, but _Jack ass_, _Jack daw_, _Jenny wren_, _Tom
tit_ (see p. 123), and the inclusive _Dicky bird_, are still familiar.
With these we may compare _Hob_ (_i.e._ Robert) _goblin_. _Madge owl_,
or simply _Madge_, was once common. For _Mag pie_ we find also various
diminutives--
"Augurs, and understood relations, have
By _magot-pies_, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth
The secret'st man of blood."
(_Macbeth_, iii. 4.)
Cotgrave has _pie_, "a pye, pyannat, _meggatapie_." In Old French it was
also called _jaquette_, "a proper name for a woman; also, a piannat, or
_megatapie_" (Cotgrave).
The connection of this word, Fr. _pie_, Lat. _pica_, with the comestible
_pie_ is uncertain, but it seems likely that the magpie's habit of
collecting miscellaneous trifles caused its name to be given to a dish
of uncertain constituents. It is a curious coincidence that the obsolete
_chuet_ or _chewet_ meant both a round pie and a jackdaw.[30] It is
uncertain in which of the two senses Prince Hal applies the name to
Falstaff (1 _Henry IV._, v. 1). It comes from Fr. _chouette_,
screech-owl, which formerly meant also "a chough, daw, jack-daw"
(Cotgrave).
A _piebald_ horse is one _balled_ like a magpie. _Ball_ is a Celtic word
for a white mark, especially on the forehead; hence the tavern sign of
the _Baldfaced Stag_. Our adjective _bald_ is thus a past participle.
Things are often named from animals. _Crane_, _kite_, _donkey-engine_,
_monkey-wrench_, _pig-iron_, etc., are simple cases. The _crane_ picture
is so striking that we are not surprised to find it literally reproduced
in many other languages. The toy called a _kite_ is in French _cerf
volant_, flying stag, a name also applied to the stag-beetle, and in
Ger. _Drachen_, dragon. It is natural that terrifying names should have
been given to early fire-arms. Many of these, e.g., _basilisk_,
_serpent_, _falconet_, _saker_ (from Fr. _sacre_, a kind of hawk), are
obsolete--
"The cannon, blunderbuss, and _saker_,
He was th' inventor of and maker."
(_Hudibras_, i. 2.)
More familiar is _culverin_, Fr. _couleuvrine_, a derivative of
_couleuvre_, adder, Lat. _coluber_--
"And thou hast talk'd
Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents,
Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets,
Of basilisks, of cannon, _culverin_."
(1 _Henry IV._, ii. 3.)
One name for a hand-gun was _dragon_, whence our _dragoon_, originally
applied to a kind of mounted infantry or carbineers. _Musket_, like
_saker_ (v.s.), was the name of a hawk. Mistress Ford uses it playfully
to her page--
"How now, my eyas[31]-_musket_, what news with you?"
(_Merry Wives_, iii. 3.)
But the hawk was so nicknamed from its small size. Fr. _mousquet_, now
replaced in the hawk sense by _émouchet_, is from Ital. _moschetto_, a
diminutive from Lat. _musca_, fly. Thus _mosquito_ (Spanish) and
_musket_ are doublets.
_Porcelain_ comes, through French, from Ital. _porcellana_, "a kinde of
fine earth called _porcelane_, whereof they make fine china dishes,
called _porcellan_ dishes" (Florio). This is, however, a transferred
meaning, _porcellana_ being the name of a particularly glossy shell
called the "Venus shell." It is a derivative of Lat. _porcus_, pig.
_Easel_ comes, with many other painters' terms, from Holland. It is Du.
_ezel_, ass, which, like Ger. _Esel_, comes from Lat. _asinus_. For its
metaphorical application we may compare Fr. _chevalet_, easel, lit.
"little horse," and Eng. "clothes-_horse_."
[Page Heading: THINGS NAMED FROM PERSONS]
Objects often bear the names of individuals. Such are _albert_ chain,
_brougham_, _victoria_, _wellington_ boot. Some elderly people can
remember ladies wearing a red blouse called a _garibaldi_.[32] Sometimes
an inventor is immortalised, e.g., _mackintosh_ and _shrapnel_, both due
to 19th-century inventors. The more recent _maxim_ is named from one
who, according to the late Lord Salisbury, has saved many of his
fellow-men from dying of old age. Other benefactors are commemorated in
_derringer_, first recorded in Bret Harte, and _bowie_, which occurs in
Dickens' _American Notes_. _Sandwich_ and _spencer_ are coupled in an
old rime--
"Two noble earls, whom, if I quote,
Some folks might call me sinner;
The one invented half a coat,
The other half a dinner."
An Earl Spencer (1782-1845) made a short overcoat fashionable for some
time. An Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792) invented a form of light
refreshment which enabled him to take a meal without leaving the gaming
table. It does not appear that _Billy Cock_ is to be classed with the
above, or with _Chesterfield, Chippendale & Co._ The _New English
Dictionary_ quotes (from 1721) a description of the Oxford "blood" in
his "_bully-cocked_ hat," worn aggressively on one side. _Pinchbeck_ was
a London watchmaker (_fl. c._ 1700), and _doily_ is from _Doyley_, a
linen-draper of the same period. Etienne de _Silhouette_ was French
finance minister in 1759, but the application of his name to a black
profile portrait is variously explained. _Negus_ was first brewed in
Queen Anne's reign by Colonel Francis Negus.
The first _orrery_ was constructed by the Earl of Orrery (_c._ 1700).
_Galvani_ and _Volta_ were Italian scientists of the 18th century.
_Mesmer_ was a German physician of the same period. _Nicotine_ is named
from Jean Nicot, French ambassador at Lisbon, who sent some tobacco
plants to Catherine de Médicis in 1560. He also compiled the first Old
French dictionary. The gallows-shaped contrivance called a _derrick_
perpetuates the name of a famous hangman who officiated in London about
1600. It is a Dutch name, identical with _Dietrich_, _Theodoric_, and
_Dirk_ (Hatteraick). Conversely the Fr. _potence_, gallows, meant
originally a bracket or support, Lat. _potentia_, power. The origin of
_darbies_, handcuffs, is unknown, but the line--
"To bind such babes in father _Derbies_ bands,"
(GASCOIGNE, _The Steel Glass_, 1576.)
suggests connection with some eminent gaoler or thief-taker.
[Page Heading: TANTALISE--PAMPHLET]
Occasionally a verb is formed from a proper name. On the model of
_tantalise_, from the punishment of Tantalus, we have _bowdlerise_, from
_Bowdler_, who published an expurgated "family Shakespeare" in 1818; cf.
_macadamise_. _Burke_ and _boycott_ commemorate a scoundrel and a
victim. The latter word, from the treatment of Captain Boycott of Co.
Mayo in 1880, seems to have supplied a want, for Fr. _boycotter_ and
Ger. _boycottieren_ have become every-day words. Burke was hanged at
Edinburgh in 1829 for murdering people by suffocation in order to
dispose of their bodies to medical schools. We now use the verb only of
"stifling" discussion, but in the Ingoldsby Legends it still has the
original sense--
"But, when beat on his knees,
That confounded De Guise
Came behind with the 'fogle' that caused all this breeze,
Whipp'd it tight round his neck, and, when backward he'd jerk'd him,
The rest of the rascals jump'd on him and _Burk'd_ him."
(_The Tragedy._)
_Jarvey_, the slang name for a hackney coachman, especially in Ireland,
was in the 18th century _Jervis_ or _Jarvis_, but history is silent as
to this modern _Jehu_. A _pasquinade_ was originally an anonymous
lampoon affixed to a statue of a gladiator which still stands in Rome.
The statue is said to have been nicknamed from a scandal-loving cobbler
named Pasquino. Florio has _pasquino_, "a statue in Rome on whom all
libels, railings, detractions, and satirical invectives are fathered."
_Pamphlet_ is an extended use of Old Fr. _Pamphilet_, the name of a
Latin poem by one _Pamphilus_ which was popular in the Middle Ages. The
suffix _-et_ was often used in this way, _e.g._, the translation of
Æsop's fables by Marie de France was called _Ysopet_, and Cato's moral
maxims had the title _Catonet_, or Parvus Cato. Modern Fr. _pamphlet_,
borrowed back from English, has always the sense of polemical writing.
In Eng. _libel_, lit. "little book," we see a similar restriction of
meaning. A three-quarter portrait of fixed dimensions is called a
_kitcat_--
"It is not easy to see why he should have chosen to produce a
replica, or rather a _kitcat_."
(_Journal of Education_, Oct. 1911.)
The name comes from the portraits of members of the _Kitcat_ Club,
painted by Kneller. _Kit Kat_, Christopher Kat, was a pastrycook at
whose shop the club used to dine.
Implements and domestic objects sometimes bear christian names. We may
mention spinning-_jenny_, and the innumerable meanings of _jack_.
_Davit_, earlier _daviot_, is a diminutive of David. Fr. _davier_,
formerly _daviet_, is used of several mechanical contrivances, including
a pick-lock. A kind of davit is called in German _Jütte_, a diminutive
of Judith. The implement by which the burglar earns his daily bread is
now called a _jemmy_, but in the 17th century we also find _bess_ and
_betty_. The French name is _rossignol_, nightingale. The German burglar
calls it _Dietrich_, _Peterchen_, or _Klaus_, and the contracted forms
of the first name, _dyrk_ and _dirk_, have passed into Swedish and
Danish with the same meaning. In Italian a pick-lock is called
_grimaldello_, a diminutive of the name Grimaldo.
[Page Heading: GRIMALKIN--JUG]
A kitchen wench was once called a _malkin_--
"The kitchen _malkin_ pins
Her richest lockram[33] 'bout her reechy neck,
Clamb'ring the walls to eye him."
(_Coriolanus_, ii. 1.)
This is a diminutive of Matilda or Mary, possibly of both. _Grimalkin_,
applied to a fiend in the shape of a cat, is perhaps for _gray malkin_--
"I come, _Graymalkin_."
(_Macbeth_, i. 1.)
The name _malkin_ was transferred from the maid to the mop. Cotgrave has
_escouillon_ (_écouvillon_), "a wispe, or dish-clowt; a _maukin_, or
drag, to cleanse, or sweepe an oven." _Écouvillon_ is a derivative of
Lat. _scopa_, broom. Now another French word, which means both "kitchen
servant" and "dish-clout," is _souillon_, from _souiller_, to soil. What
share each of these words has in Eng. _scullion_ is hard to say. The
only thing certain is that _scullion_ is not originally related to
_scullery_, Old Fr. _escuelerie_, a collective from Old Fr. _escuelle_
(_écuelle_), dish, Lat. _scutella_.
A _doll_ was formerly called a _baby_ or _puppet_. It is the
abbreviation of _Dorothy_, for we find it called a _doroty_ in Scottish.
We may compare Fr. _marionnette_, a double diminutive of Mary, explained
by Cotgrave as "little Marian or Mal; also, a puppet." _Little Mary_, in
another sense, has been recently, but perhaps definitely, adopted into
our language. Another old name for doll is _mammet_. Capulet uses it
contemptuously to his daughter--
"And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining _mammet_, in her fortune's tender,
To answer: 'I'll not wed,'--'I cannot love.'"
(_Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 5.)
Its earlier form is _maumet_, meaning "idol," and it is a contraction of
Mahomet.
The derivation of _jug_ is not capable of proof, but a 17th-century
etymologist regards it as identical with the female name _Jug_,[34] for
Joan or Jane. This is supported by the fact that _jack_ was used in a
similar sense--
"That there's wrath and despair in the jolly black-_jack_,
And the seven deadly sins in a flagon of sack."
(_Lady of the Lake_, vi. 5.)
We may also compare _toby jug_ and _demi-john_. The latter word is in
French _dame-jeanne_, but both forms are possibly due to folk-etymology.
A coat of mail was called in English a _jack_ and in French _jaque_, "a
_jack_, or coat of maile" (Cotgrave); hence the diminutive _jacket_. The
German miners gave to an ore which they considered useless the name
_kobalt_, from _kobold_, a goblin, gnome. This has given Eng. _cobalt_.
Much later is the similarly formed _nickel_, a diminutive of Nicholas.
It comes to us from Sweden, but appears earliest in the German compound
_Kupfernickel_, copper nickel. Apparently _nickel_ here means something
like goblin; cf. _Old Nick_ and, probably, the _dickens_--
"I cannot tell what the _dickens_ his name is my husband had him
of.--What do you call your knight's name, sirrah?"
(_Merry Wives_, iii. 2.)
_Pantaloons_ come, _via_ France, from Venice. A great many Venetians
bore the name of _Pantaleone_, one of their favourite saints. Hence the
application of the name to the characteristic Venetian hose. The "lean
and slippered pantaloon" was originally one of the stock characters of
the old Italian comedy. Torriano has _pantalone_, "a _pantalone_, a
covetous and yet amorous old dotard, properly applyed in comedies unto a
Venetian." _Knickerbockers_ take their name from Diedrich
_Knickerbocker_, the pseudonym under which Washington Irving wrote his
History of Old New York, in which the early Dutch inhabitants are
depicted in baggy knee-breeches.
[Page Heading: NINNY--JACKANAPES]
Certain christian names are curiously associated with stupidity. In
modern English we speak of a _silly Johnny_, while the Germans say _ein
dummer Peter_, or _Michel_, and French uses _Colas_ (_Nicolas_),
_Nicodème_ and _Claude_, the reason for the selection of the name not
always being known. English has, or had, in the sense of "fool," the
words _ninny_, _nickum_, _noddy_, _zany_. _Ninny_ is for _Innocent_,
"Innocent, _Ninny_, a proper name for a man" (Cotgrave). With this we
may compare French _benêt_ (_i.e._ Benedict), "a simple, plaine, doltish
fellow; a noddy peake, a ninny hammer, a peagoose, a coxe, a silly
companion" (Cotgrave). _Nickum_ and _noddy_ are probably for Nicodemus
or Nicholas, both of which are used in French for a fool--
"'But there's another chance for you,' said Mr Boffin, smiling
still. 'Do you like the name of Nicodemus? Think it over. _Nick_ or
_Noddy_.'"
(_Our Mutual Friend_, Ch. 5.)
_Noddy-peak_, _ninny-hammer_, _nickumpoop_, now _nincompoop_, seem to be
arbitrary elaborations. _Zany_, formerly a conjuror's assistant, is
_zanni_ (see p. 143), an Italian diminutive of _Giovanni_, John. With
the degeneration of _Innocent_ and _Benedict_ we may compare Fr.
_crétin_, idiot, an Alpine patois form of _chrétien_, Christian, and
Eng. _silly_, which once meant blessed, a sense preserved by its German
cognate _selig_. _Dunce_ is a libel on the disciples of the great
medieval schoolman John Duns Scotus, born at Duns in Berwickshire.
_Dandy_ is Scottish for Andrew, _e.g._, Dandie Dinmont (_Guy
Mannering_). _Dago_, now usually applied to Italians, was used by the
Elizabethans, in its original form _Diego_, of the Spaniards. The
derivation of _guy_ and _bobby_ (peeler) is well known. _Jockey_ is a
diminutive of the north country _Jock_, for _Jack_. The history of
_jackanapes_ is obscure. The earliest record of the name is in a
satirical song on the unpopular William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk,
who was beheaded at sea in 1450. He is called _Jack Napes_, the allusion
being apparently to his badge, an ape's clog and chain. But there also
seems to be association with Naples; cf. _fustian-anapes_ for Naples
fustian. A poem of the 15th century mentions among our imports from
Italy--
"Apes and japes and marmusettes tayled."
_Jilt_ was once a stronger epithet than at present. It is for earlier
_jillet_, which is a diminutive of _Jill_, the companion of Jack.
_Jill_, again, is short for _Gillian_, i.e. _Juliana_, so that _jilt_ is
a doublet of Shakespeare's sweetest heroine. _Termagant_, like _shrew_
(p. 34), was formerly used of both sexes, _e.g._, by Sir John Falstaff--
"'Twas time to counterfeit, or that hot _termagant_ Scot (Douglas)
had paid me scot and lot too."
(1 _Henry IV._, v. 4.)
In its oldest sense of a Saracen god it regularly occurs with _Mahound_
(Mahomet)--
"Marsilies fait porter un livre avant:
La lei i fut Mahum e _Tervagan_."[35]
(_Chanson de Roland_, l. 610.)
Ariosto has _Trivigante_. Being introduced into the medieval drama, the
name became synonymous with a stage fury--
"I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing _Termagant_."
(_Hamlet_, iii. 2.)
The origin of the word is unknown, but its sense development is
strangely different from that of Mahomet (p. 43).
FOOTNOTES:
[24] But _Finsteraarhorn_ is perhaps from the river _Aar_, not from
_Aar_, eagle.
[25] A place where a number of settlers were massacred by the Zulus.
[26] "Two mountains near Dublin, which we, keeping in the grocery line,
have called the Great and the Little Sugarloaf, are named in Irish the
Golden Spears."--(Trench, _On the Study of Words_.)
[27] The French name for the fruit is _ananas_, a Brazilian word. A
vegetarian friend of the writer, misled by the superficial likeness of
this word to _banana_, once petrified a Belgian waiter by ordering half
a dozen for his lunch.
[28] A reader calls my attention to the fact that, when the hippopotamus
is almost completely submerged, the pointed ears, prominent eyes, and
large nostrils are grotesquely suggestive of a horse's head. This I have
recently verified at the Zoo.
[29] For the rather illogical formation, cf. _dogged_ from _dog_.
[30] Connection has even been suggested between _haggis_ and Fr.
_agasse_, "a pie, piannet, or _magatapie_" (Cotgrave). _Haggis_, now
regarded as Scottish, was once a common word in English. Palsgrave has
_haggas_, a podyng, "caliette (caillette) de mouton," _i.e._, sheep's
stomach.
[31] For _eyas_ see p. 114.
[32] To the same period belongs the colour _magenta_, from the victory
of the French over the Austrians at Magenta in 1859.
[33] For _lockram_, see p. 48.
[34] _Jehannette_, "_Jug_, or Jinny" (Cotgrave). For strange perversions
of baptismal names see Chap. XII. It is possible that the rather
uncommon family name _Juggins_ is of the same origin.
[35] "Marsil has a book brought forward: the law of Mahomet and
Termagant was in it."
CHAPTER IV
WORDS AND PLACES
A very large number of wares are named from the places from which they
come. This is especially common in the case of woven fabrics, and the
origin is often obvious, e.g., _arras_, _cashmere_ (by folk-etymology,
_kerseymere_), _damask_, _holland_. The following are perhaps not all so
evident--_frieze_ from _Friesland_[36]; _fustian_, Old Fr. _fustaine_
(_futaine_), from _Fustat_, a suburb of Cairo; _muslin_, Fr.
_mousseline_, from _Mosul_ in Kurdistan; _shalloon_ from
_Châlons_-sur-Marne; _lawn_ from _Laon_; _jean_, formerly _jane_, from
_Genoa_ (French _Gênes_[37]); _cambric_ from _Kamerijk_, the Dutch name
of Cambrai (_cf._ the obsolete _dornick_, from the Dutch name of
_Tournay_); _tartan_ from the _Tartars_ (properly _Tatars_), used
vaguely for Orientals; _sarcenet_ from the Saracens; _sendal_,
ultimately from _India_ (_cf._ Greco-Lat. _sindon_, Indian cloth);
_tabby_, Old Fr. _atabis_, from the name of a suburb of Bagdad, formerly
used of a kind of silk, but now of a cat marked something like the
material in question.
Brittany used to be famous for hempen fabrics, and the villages of
_Locrenan_ and _Daoulas_ gave their names to _lockram_ (see quotation
from _Coriolanus_, p. 42) and _dowlas_--
_Hostess._ You owe me money, Sir John; and now you pick a quarrel to
beguile me of it: I bought you a dozen of shirts to your back.
_Falstaff._ _Dowlas_, filthy _dowlas_; I have given them away to
bakers' wives, and they have made bolters of them.
(1 _Henry IV._, iii. 3.)
_Duffel_ is a place near Antwerp--
"And let it be of _duffil_ gray,
As warm a cloak as man can sell."
(WORDSWORTH, _Alice Fell_.)
and _Worstead_ is in Norfolk. Of other commodities _majolica_ comes from
_Majorca_, called in Spanish _Mallorca_, and in medieval Latin
_Majolica_; _bronze_ from _Brundusium_ (Brindisi), _delf_ from _Delft_,
the _magnet_ from _Magnesia_, the _shallot_, Fr. _échalote_, in Old
French also _escalogne_, whence archaic Eng. _scallion_, from _Ascalon_;
the _sardine_ from _Sardinia_. A _milliner_, formerly _milaner_, dealt
in goods from _Milan_. _Cravat_ dates from the Thirty Years' War, in
which the _Croats_, earlier _Cravats_, played a part. _Ermine_ is in
medieval Latin _mus Armenius_, Armenian mouse, but the name perhaps
comes, through Fr. _hermine_, from Old High Ger. _harmo_, weasel.
_Buncombe_, more usually _bunkum_, is the name of a county in North
Carolina. To make a speech "for Buncombe" means, in American politics,
to show your constituents that you are doing your best for your £400 a
year or its American equivalent. Cf. _Billingsgate_ and _Limehouse_.
The adjective _spruce_ was formerly _pruce_ and meant Prussia. Todd
quotes from Holinshed--
"Sir Edward Howard then admirall, and with him Sir Thomas Parre in
doubletts of crimsin velvett, etc., were apparelled after the
fashion of Prussia or _Spruce_."
Of similar origin are _spruce-leather_, _spruce-beer_, and the
_spruce-fir_, of which Evelyn says--
"Those from Prussia (which we call _spruce_) and Norway are the
best."
[Page Heading: BEZANT--MAZURKA]
Among coins the _bezant_ comes from _Byzantium_, the _florin_ from
_Florence_, and Shylock's _ducat_, chiefly a Venetian coin, from the
_ducato_ d'Apuglia, the Duchy of Apulia, where it was first coined in
the 12th century. The _dollar_ is the Low Ger. _daler_, for Ger.
_Taler_, originally called a _Joachimstaler_, from the silver-mine of
Joachimstal, "Joachim's dale," in Bohemia. Cotgrave registers a curious
Old French perversion _jocondale_, "a _daller_, a piece of money worth
about 3s. sterl." Some fruits may also be mentioned, _e.g._, the
_damson_ from _Damascus_, through Old Fr. _damaisine_, "a damascene or
_damsen_ plum" (Cotgrave); the _currant_ from _Corinth_, and the
_peach_, Fr. _pêche_, from Vulgar Lat. _pessica_, for _Persica_.
A _polony_ was originally a _Bolonian_ sausage, from _Bologna_.
_Parchment_, Fr. _parchemin_, is the adjective _pergamenus_, from
_Pergamus_, in Asia Minor. _Spaniel_ is the Old Fr. _espagneul_
(_épagneul_), lit. Spanish. We have the adjective _Moorish_ in _morris_,
or _morrice_, _pike_--
"He that sets up his rest to do more exploits with his mace than a
_morris pike_."
(_Comedy of Errors_, iv. 3.)
In _morris dance_, Fr. _danse mauresque_, the same adjective is used
with something of the vagueness to be noticed in connection with India
and Turkey (p. 52). Shakespeare uses the Spanish form--
"I have seen him
Caper upright, like to a wild _morisco_,
Shaking the bloody darts as he his bells."
(2 _Henry VI._, iii. 1.)
Other "local" dances are the _polka_, which means Polish woman,
_mazurka_, woman of Mazuria, and the obsolete _polonaise_, lit. Polish,
_cracovienne_, from Cracow, and _varsovienne_, from Warsaw. The
_tarantella_, like the _tarantula_ spider, takes its name from Taranto,
in Italy. The tune of the dance is said to have been originally employed
as a cure for the lethargy caused by the bite of the spider. Florio has
_tarantola_, "a serpent called an eft or an evet. Some take it to be a
flye whose sting is perillous and deadly, and nothing but divers sounds
of musicke can cure the patient."
The town of _Troyes_ has given its name to _troy_ weight. The armourers
of _Bilbao_, in Spain, made swords of such perfect temper that they
could be bent point to hilt. Hence Falstaff describes himself in the
buck-basket as--
"Compassed, like a good _bilbo_, in the circumference of a peck,
hilt to point, heel to head."
(_Merry Wives_, iii. 5.)
The _Andrea Ferrara_, or Scottish broadsword, carried by Fergus M'Ivor,
bears, according to some authorities, the name of an armourer of
Ferrara, in Italy. According to others, _Andrea dei Ferrari_ was a
sword-maker at Belluno. I have heard it affirmed by a Scottish
drill-sergeant that the real name of this genius was _Andrew
Ferrars_,[38] and that he belonged to the same nationality as other
great men.
[Page Heading: LATEEN--GUINEA-PIG]
An _argosy_, formerly also _ragusye_, was named from the Adriatic port
of _Ragusa_, and a _lateen_ sail is a _Latin_, _i.e._ Mediterranean,
sail; _gamboge_ is the Fr. _Cambodge_, Cambodia, and _indigo_ is from
Span. _indico_, Indian. Of wines, _malmsey_, chiefly remembered in
connection with George of Clarence, and _malvoisie_ are doublets, from
_Monemvasia_ in the Morea. _Port_ is named from _Oporto_, i.e. _o
porto_, the harbour (cf. _le Havre_), and _sherry_ (see p. 116) from
_Xeres_, Lat. _Cæsaris_ (urbs); cf. _Saragossa_, from _Cæsarea Augusta_.
But it is possible to be mistaken in connecting countries with products.
_Brazil_ wood is not named from the country, but _vice-versâ_. It was
known as a dye-wood as early as the 12th century, and the name is found
in many of the European languages. The Portuguese navigators found large
quantities of it in South America and named the country accordingly.
They christened an island _Madeira_, timber, Lat. _materia_, for a
similar reason. The _canary_ comes from the Canary Islands, but its name
is good Latin. The largest of these islands, _Canaria_, was so called by
the Romans from the dogs found there. The _guinea_-fowl and _guinea_
gold came first from the west coast of Africa, but the _guinea-pig_ is a
native of Brazil. The name probably came from the _Guinea-men_, or
slave-ships, which regularly followed a triangular course. They sailed
outward to the west coast of Africa with English goods. These they
exchanged for slaves, whom they transported to the West Indies, the
horrible "middle passage," and finally they sailed homeward with New
World produce, including, no doubt, _guinea-pigs_ brought home by
sailors. The turkey is also called _guinea-fowl_ in the 17th century,
probably to be explained in the same way. The German name for
guinea-pig, _Meerschweinchen_, seems to mean little pig from over the
sea.
Guinea was a vague geographical expression in the 17th century, but not
so vague as India or Turkey. _Indian ink_ comes from China (Fr. _encre
de Chine_), and _Indian corn_ from America. The names given to the
_turkey_ are extraordinary. We are not surprised that, as an American
bird, it should be naturally connected with India; _cf._ West Indies,
Red Indian, etc. _Turk_ was in the 16th and 17th centuries a vague term
for non-Christians--
"Jews, _Turks_, infidels, and hereticks."
(Collect for Good Friday.)
and we find also _Turkey wheat_ for maize. The following names for the
turkey, given in a _Nomenclator_ in eight languages, published in
Germany in 1602, do not exhaust the list:--
German.--_Indianisch_ oder _Kalekuttisch_[39] oder _Welsch_[40] Hun.
Dutch.--_Calcoensche_ oft _Turckische_ Henne.
French.--Geline ou poulle d'_Inde_, ou d'_Africque_.
Italian.--Gallina d'_India_.
Spanish.--Pavon (peacock) de las _Indias_.
English.--Cok off Inde!
No doubt the turkey was confused with other birds, for we find Fr.
_geline d'Inde_ before the discovery of America. _D'Inde_ has become
_dinde_, whence a new masculine _dindon_ has been formed.
[Page Heading: HANSOM]
The early etymologists were fond of identifying foreign wares with
place-names. They connected _diaper_ with Ypres, _gingham_ with Guingamp
(in Brittany), _drugget_ with Drogheda, and the _sedan_ chair with
Sedan. Such guesses are almost always wrong. The origin of _diaper_ is
doubtful, that of _drugget_ quite unknown, and _gingham_ is Malay. As
far as we know at present, the _sedan_ came from Italy in the 16th
century, and it is there, among derivatives of Lat. _sedere_, to sit,
that its origin must be sought, unless indeed the original _Sedan_ was
some mute, inglorious _Hansom_.[41]
FOOTNOTES:
[36] Whence also _cheval de frise_, a contrivance used by the
Frieslanders against cavalry. The German name is _die spanischen
Reiter_, explained by Ludwig as "a bar with iron-spikes; _cheval de
frise_, a warlick instrument, to keep off the horse."
[37] The form _jeans_ appears to be usual in America--"His hands were
thrust carelessly into the side pockets of a gray _jeans_ coat."
(Meredith Nicholson, _War of the Carolinas_, Ch. 15.)
[38] A Scotch reviewer (_Glasgow Herald_, 13th April 1912) corrects me
here--"His name was certainly not Ferrars, but Ferrier. He was probably
an Arbroath man." Some readers may remember that, after General
_Todleben's_ brilliant defence of Sebastopol (1854-5), _Punch_
discovered a respectable ancestry for him also. In some lines
commencing--
"I ken him weel, the chield was born in Fife,
The bairn of Andrew Drummond and his wife,"
it was shown that the apparently foreign name had been conferred on the
gifted child because of the agility with which he used to "_toddle ben_
the hoose."
[39] Calicut, not Calcutta.
[40] See _walnut_ (p. 151).
[41] As the _hansom_ has now become of archæological interest only, it
may be recorded here that it took its name from that of its
inventor--"The _Hansom's_ patent (cab) is especially constructed for
getting quickly over the ground" (Pulleyn's _Etymological Compendium_,
1853). _Sic transit!_
CHAPTER V
PHONETIC ACCIDENTS
The history of a word has to be studied from the double point of view of
sound and sense, or, to use more technical terms, phonetics and
semantics. In the logical order of things it seems natural to deal first
with the less interesting aspect, phonetics, the physical processes by
which sounds are gradually transformed. Speaking generally, it may be
said that phonetic changes are governed by the law of least resistance,
a sound which presents difficulty being gradually and unconsciously
modified by a whole community or race. With the general principles of
phonetics I do not propose to deal, but a few simple examples will serve
to illustrate the one great law on which this science is based.
The population of this country is educationally divided by the letter
_h_ into three classes, which we may describe as the confident, the
anxious, and the indifferent. The same division existed in imperial
Rome, where educated people sounded the aspirate, which completely
disappeared from the every-day language of the lower classes, the
so-called Vulgar Latin, from which the Romance languages are descended,
so far as their working vocabulary is concerned. The anxious class was
also represented. A Latin epigrammatist[42] remarks that since Arrius,
prophetic name, has visited the Ionic islands, they will probably be
henceforth known as the _Hionic_ islands. To the disappearance of the
_h_ from Vulgar Latin is due the fact that the Romance languages have no
aspirate. French still writes the initial _h_ in some words by
etymological reaction, e.g., _homme_ for Old Fr. _ome_, and also at one
time really had an aspirate in the case of words of Germanic origin,
e.g., _la honte_, shame. But this _h_ is no longer sounded, although it
still, by tradition, prevents elision and _liaison_, mistakes in which
are regarded much in the same way as a misplaced aspirate in English.
The "educated" _h_ of modern English is largely an artificial
restoration; _cf._ the modern _hotel_-keeper with the older word
_ostler_ (see p. 164), or the family name _Armitage_ with the restored
_hermitage_.
[Page Heading: PHONETIC LAZINESS]
We have dropped the _k_ sound in initial _kn_, as in _knave_, still
sounded in Ger. _Knabe_, boy. French gets over the difficulty by
inserting a vowel between the two consonants, e.g., _canif_ is a
Germanic word cognate with Eng. _knife_. This is a common device in
French when a word of Germanic origin begins with two consonants. _Cf._
Fr. _dérive_, drift, Eng. _drive_; Fr. _varech_, sea-weed, Eng. _wrack_.
_Harangue_, formerly _harengue_, is Old High Ger. _hring_, Eng. _ring_,
the allusion being to the circle formed by the audience. Fr. _chenapan_,
rogue, is Ger. _Schnapphahn_, robber, lit. fowl-stealer. The _shallop_
that "flitteth silken-sail'd, skimming down to Camelot," is Fr.
_chaloupe_, probably identical with Du. _sloep_, sloop.
The general dislike that French has for a double consonant sound at the
beginning of a word appears also in the transformation of all Latin
words which began with _sc_, _sp_, _st_, e.g., _scola_ > _escole_
(_école_), _spongia_ > _esponge_ (_éponge_), _stabulum_ > _estable_
(_étable_). English words derived from French generally show the older
form, but without the initial vowel, _school_, _sponge_, _stable_.
The above are very simple examples of sound change. There are certain
less regular changes, which appear to work in a more arbitrary fashion
and bring about more picturesque results. Three of the most important of
these are assimilation, dissimilation, and metathesis.
Assimilation is the tendency of a sound to imitate its neighbour. The
tree called the _lime_ was formerly the _line_, and earlier still the
_lind_. We see the older form in _linden_ and in such place-names as
_Lyndhurst_, lime wood. _Line_ often occurred in such compounds as
_line-bark_, _line-bast_, _line-wood_, where the second component began
with a lip consonant. The _n_ became also a lip consonant because it was
easier to pronounce, and by the 17th century we generally find _lime_
instead of _line_. We have a similar change in _Lombard_ for Ger.
_lang-bart_, long-beard, or, according to some, long-axe. For
_Liverpool_ we find also _Litherpool_ in early records. If the reader
attempts to pronounce both names rapidly, he will be able to form his
own opinion as to whether it is more natural for _Liverpool_ to become
_Litherpool_ or _vice-versâ_, a vexed question with philologists. Fr.
_vélin_, a derivative of Old Fr. _veel_ (_veau_), calf, and _venin_,
Lat. _venenum_, have given Eng. _vellum_ and _venom_, the final
consonant being in each case assimilated[43] to the initial labial. So
also _mushroom_, Fr. _mousseron_, from _mousse_, moss.
Vulgar Lat. _circare_ (from _circa_, around) gave Old Fr. _cerchier_,
Eng. _search_. In modern Fr. _chercher_ the initial consonant has been
influenced by the medial _ch_. The _m_ of the curious word _ampersand_,
variously spelt, is due to the neighbouring _p_. It is applied to the
sign &. I thought it obsolete till I came across it on successive days
in two contemporary writers--
"One of my mother's chief cares was to teach me my letters, which I
learnt from big A to _Ampersand_ in the old hornbook at Lantrig."
(QUILLER-COUCH, _Dead Man's Rock_, Ch. 2.)
"Tommy knew all about the work. Knew every letter in it from A to
_Emperzan_."
(PETT RIDGE, _In the Wars_.)
Children used to repeat the alphabet thus--"A per se A, B per se B," and
so on to "_and per se and_." The symbol & is an abbreviation of Lat.
_et_, written _&_.
[Page Heading: DISSIMILATION]
Dissimilation is the opposite process. The archaic word _pomander_--
"I have sold all my trumpery; not a counterfeit stone, not a riband,
glass, _pomander_, brooch, ... to keep my pack from fasting."
(_Winter's Tale_, iv. 3.)
was formerly spelt _pomeamber_. It comes from Old Fr. _pome ambre_,
apple of amber, a ball of perfume once carried by the delicate. In this
case one of the two lip consonants has been dissimilated. A like change
has occurred in Fr. _nappe_, cloth, from Lat. _mappa_, whence our
_napkin_, _apron_ (p. 113), and the family name _Napier_.
The sounds most frequently affected by dissimilation are those
represented by the letters _l_, _n_, and _r_. Fr. _gonfalon_ is for
older _gonfanon_. Chaucer uses the older form, Milton the newer--
"Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanc'd,
Standards and _gonfalons_, 'twixt van and rear,
Stream in the air."
(_Paradise Lost_, v. 589.)
_Gonfanon_ is of Germanic origin. It means literally "battle-flag," and
the second element is cognate with English _fane_ or _vane_ (Ger.
_Fahne_). Eng. _pilgrim_ and Fr. _pèlerin_, from Lat. _peregrinus_,
illustrate the change from _r_ to _l_, while the word _frail_, an osier
basket for figs, is due to a change from _l_ to _r_, which goes back to
Roman times. A grammarian of imperial Rome named Probus compiled, about
the 3rd or 4th century, A.D., a list of cautions as to mispronunciation.
In this list we find "_flagellum_, non _fragellum_." In the sense of
switch, twig, _fragellum_ gave Old Fr. _freel_, basket made of twigs,
whence Eng. _frail_; while the correct _flagellum_ gave Old Fr. _fleel_
(_fléau_), whence Eng. _flail_. A Vulgar Lat. _*mora_, mulberry, from
Lat. _morus_, mulberry tree, has given Fr. _mûre_. The _r_ of _berry_
has brought about dissimilation in Eng. _mulberry_ and Ger. _Maulbeere_.
_Colonel_ has the spelling of Fr. _colonel_, but its pronunciation
points rather to the dissimilated Spanish form _coronel_ which is common
in Elizabethan English. Cotgrave has _colonel_, "a _colonell_, or
_coronell_; the commander of a regiment."
The female name _Annabel_ is a dissimilation of _Amabel_, whence
_Mabel_. By confusion with the popular medieval name _Orable_, Lat.
_orabilis_, _Annabel_ has become _Arabel_ or _Arabella_. Our _level_ is
Old Fr. _livel_, Vulgar Lat. _*libellum_, for _libella_, a plummet,
diminutive of _libra_, scales. Old Fr. _livel_ became by dissimilation
_nivel_, now _niveau_. Many conjectures have been made as to the
etymology of _oriel_. It is from Old Fr. _oriol_, a recess, or sanctum,
which first occurs in an Anglo-Norman poem of the 12th century on
Becket. This is from a Late Latin diminutive _aulæolum_, a small chapel
or shrine, which was dissimilated into _auræolum_.
Sometimes dissimilation leads to the disappearance of a consonant,
_e.g._, Eng. _feeble_, Fr. _faible_, represents Lat. _flebilis_,
lamentable, from _flere_, to weep. _Fugleman_ was once _flugelman_, from
Ger. _Flügelmann_, wing man, _i.e._, a tall soldier on the wing who
exaggerated the movements of musketry drill for the guidance of the
rest.
[Page Heading: METATHESIS]
Metathesis is the transposition of two sounds. A simple case is our
_trouble_, Fr. _troubler_, from Lat. _turbulare_. _Maggot_ is for Mid.
Eng. _maddok_, a diminutive of Anglo-Sax. _maþa_; _cf._ Ger. _Made_,
maggot. _Kittle_, in the phrase "kittle cattle," is identical with
_tickle_; _cf._ Ger. _kitzeln_, to tickle. One theory for the origin of
_tankard_ is that it stands for _*cantar_, from Lat. _cantharus_, with
which it corresponds exactly in meaning; e.g., _cantharus_, "a pot, a
jugge, a _tankerd_" (Cooper); _cantharo_, a "_tankard_ or jug that
houldeth much" (Florio); _canthare_, "a great jugge, or _tankard_"
(Cotgrave). The metathesis may be due to association with the name
Tankard (Tancred).
_Wattle_ and _wallet_ are used indifferently in Mid. English for a
little bag. Shakespeare no doubt had in mind the _wattles_ of a cock or
turkey when he made Gonzalo speak of mountaineers--
"Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at them
_Wallets_ of flesh."
(_Tempest_, iii. 3.)
Fr. _moustique_ is for earlier _mousquite_, from Span. _mosquito_, a
diminutive from Lat. _musca_, a fly. _Tinsel_ is Fr. _étincelle_, spark,
earlier _estincele_, which supposes a Lat. _*stincilla_ for _scintilla_.
The old word _anlace_, dagger, common in Mid. English and revived by
Byron and Scott--
"His harp in silken scarf was slung,
And by his side an _anlace_ hung."
(_Rokeby_, v. 15.)
has provoked many guesses. Its oldest form, _anelas_, is a metathesis of
the common Old Fr. _alenas_, dagger. This is formed from _alêne_, of
Germanic origin, cognate with _awl_; cf. _cutlass_, Fr. _coutelas_ (p.
126). _Beverage_ is from Old Fr. _bevrage_, or _beuvrage_, now
_breuvage_, Vulgar Lat. _*biberaticum_, from _bibere_, to drink. Here,
as in the case of _level_ (p. 58), and _search_ (p. 57), English
preserves the older form. In _Martello_ tower, from a fort taken by the
British (1794) in _Mortella_, _i.e._, Myrtle, Bay, Corsica, we have
vowel metathesis.
It goes without saying that such linguistic phenomena are often observed
in the case of children and uneducated people. Not long ago the writer
was urged by a gardener to embellish his garden with a _ruskit_ arch.
When metathesis extends beyond one word we have what is known as a
_Spoonerism_, the original type of which is said to be--
"_Kinquerings congs_ their titles take."
We have seen (p. 57) that the letters _l_, _n_, _r_ are particularly
subject to dissimilation and metathesis. But we sometimes find them
alternating without apparent reason. Thus _banister_ is a modern form
for the correct _baluster_.[44] This was not at first applied to the
rail, but to the bulging colonnettes on which it rests. Fr. _balustre_
comes, through Italian, from Greco-Lat. _balaustium_, a pomegranate
flower, the shape of which resembles the supports of a balustrade.
Cotgrave explains _balustres_ as "_ballisters_; little, round and short
pillars, ranked on the outside of cloisters, terraces, galleries, etc."
_Glamour_ is a doublet of _grammar_ (see p. 145), and _flounce_ was
formerly _frounce_, from Fr. _froncer_, now only used of "knitting" the
brows--
"Till civil-suited morn appear,
Not trickt and _frounc't_ as she was wont
With the Attic boy to hunt."
(_Penseroso_, l. 123.)
Fr. _flibustier_, whence our _filibuster_, was earlier _fribustier_, a
corruption of Du. _vrijbuiter_, whence directly the Eng.
_freebooter_.[45]
[Page Heading: SHRINKAGE OF WORDS]
All words tend in popular usage to undergo a certain amount of
shrinkage. The reduction of Lat. _digitale_, from _digitus_, finger, to
Fr. _dé_, thimble (little thumb) is a striking example. The strong tonic
accent of English, which is usually on the first, or root, syllable,
brings about a kind of telescoping which makes us very unintelligible to
foreigners. This is seen in the pronunciation of names such as
_Cholmondeley_ and _Marjoribanks_. _Bethlehem_ hospital, for lunatics,
becomes _bedlam_; Mary _Magdalene_, taken as a type of tearful
repentance, gives us _maudlin_, now generally used of the lachrymose
stage of intoxication. _Sacristan_ is contracted into _sexton_. Fr.
_paralysie_ becomes _palsy_, and _hydropisie_ becomes _dropsy_. The
fuller form of the word usually persists in the literary language, or is
artificially introduced at a later period, so that we get such doublets
as _proctor_ and _procurator_.
In the case of French words which have a prefix, this prefix is very
frequently dropped in English, e.g., _raiment_ for _arrayment_; while
suffixes, or final syllables, often disappear, _e.g._, treasure _trove_,
for Old Fr. _trové_ (_trouvé_), or become assimilated to some familiar
English ending, e.g., _parish_, Fr. _paroisse_, _skirmish_, Fr.
_escarmouche_; _cartridge_, Fr. _cartouche_, _partridge_, Fr. _perdrix_.
A good example of such shrinkage is the word _vamp_, part of a shoe, Old
Fr. _avant-pie_ (_pied_), which became Mid. Eng. _vampey_, and then lost
its final syllable. We may compare _vambrace_, armour for the forearm,
Fr. _avant-bras_, _vanguard_, Fr. _avant-garde_, often reduced to
_van_--
"Go, charge Agrippa
Plant those that have revolted in the _van_;
That Antony may seem to spend his fury
Upon himself."
(_Antony and Cleopatra_, iv. 6.)
and the obsolete _vaunt-courier_, forerunner--
"You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
_Vaunt-couriers_ of oak-cleaving thunderbolts."
(_Lear_, iii. 2.)
When the initial vowel is _a-_, its loss may have been helped by
confusion with the indefinite article. Thus for _anatomy_ we find
_atomy_, for a skeleton or scarecrow figure, applied by Mistress Quickly
to the constable (2 _Henry IV._, v. 4). _Peal_ is for _appeal_, call;
_mend_ for _amend_, _lone_ for _alone_, i.e., _all one_. _Peach_, used
by Falstaff--
"If I be ta'en, I'll _peach_ for this."
(1 _Henry IV._, ii. 2.)
is for older _appeach_, related to _impeach_. _Size_, in all its senses,
is for _assize_, Fr. _assise_, with a general meaning of allowance or
assessment, from Fr. _asseoir_, to put, lay. _Sizars_ at Cambridge are
properly students in receipt of certain allowances called _sizings_.
With painters' _size_ we may compare Ital. _assisa_, "_size_ that
painters use" (Florio). We use the form _assize_ in speaking of the
"sitting" of the judges, but those most familiar with this tribunal
speak of being tried at the _'sizes_. The obsolete word _cate_, on which
Petruchio plays--
"For dainties are all _cates_--and therefore, Kate,
Take this of me, Kate of my consolation."
(_Taming of the Shrew_, ii. 1.)
is for earlier _acate_, an Old French dialect form corresponding to
modern Fr. _achat_, purchase. The man entrusted with purchasing was
called an _acatour_ or _catour_ (whence the name _Cator_), later
_cater_, now extended to _caterer_, like _fruiterer_ for _fruiter_,
_poulterer_ for _poulter_ and _upholsterer_ for _upholdster_ or
_upholder_.[46]
_Limbeck_ has been squeezed out by the orthodox _alembic_--
"Memory the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A _limbeck_ only."
(_Macbeth_, i. 7.)
and _prentice_ has given way to _apprentice_. _Tire_ and _attire_ both
survive, and _maze_ persists by the side of _amaze_ with the special
sense which I have heard a Notts collier express by _puzzle-garden_
(_cf._ Ger. _Irrgarten_). _Binnacle_ is a corruption, perhaps due to
association with _bin_, of earlier _bittacle_, from Lat. _habitaculum_,
a little dwelling. It may have come to us through Fr. _habitacle_ or
Port. _bitacola_, "the _bittacle_, a frame of timber in the steerage,
where the compass is placed on board a ship" (Vieyra, _Port. Dict._,
1794). As King of Scotland, King George has a household official known
as the _limner_, or painter. For _limner_[47] we find in the 15th
century _lumner_ and _luminour_, which is aphetic for _alluminour_, or
_enlumineur_. Cotgrave, s.v. _enlumineur de livres_, says, "we call one
that coloureth, or painteth upon, paper, or parchment, an _alluminer_."
[Page Heading: APHESIS]
But confusion with the article is not necessary in order to bring about
aphesis. It occurs regularly in the case of words beginning with _esc_,
_esp_, _est_, borrowed from Old French (see p. 56). Thus we have
_squire_ from _escuyer_ (_êcuyer_), _skew_ from Old Fr. _eschuer_, to
dodge, "eschew," ultimately cognate with Eng. _shy_, _spice_ from
_espice_ (_épice_), _sprite_ from _esprit_, _stage_ from _estage_
(_étage_), etc. In some cases we have the fuller form also, e.g.,
_esquire_, _eschew_; cf. _sample_ and _example_. _Fender_, whether
before a fireplace or slung outside a ship, is for _defender_; _fence_
is always for _defence_, either in the sense of a barrier or in allusion
to the noble art of self-defence.[48] The _tender_ of a ship or of a
locomotive is the _attender_, and _taint_ is aphetic for _attaint_, Fr.
_atteinte_, touch--
"I will not poison thee with my _attaint_."
(_Lucrece_, l. 1072.)
_Puzzle_ was in Mid. Eng. _opposaile_, _i.e._, something put before one.
We still speak of "a poser."
_Spital_, for _hospital_, survives in _Spitalfields_, and _Spittlegate_
at Grantham and elsewhere. _Crew_ is for _accrewe_ (Holinshed). It meant
properly a reinforcement, lit. on-growth, from Fr. _accroître_, to
accrue. In _recruit_, we have a later instance of the same idea. Fr.
_recrue_, recruit, from _recroître_, to grow again, is still feminine,
like many other military terms which were originally abstract or
collective. Cotgrave has _recreuë_, "a supplie, or filling up of a
defective company of souldiers, etc." We have _possum_ for _opossum_,
and _coon_ for _racoon_, and this for _arrahacoune_, which I find in a
16th-century record of travel; _cf._ American _skeeter_ for _mosquito_.
In these two cases we perhaps have also the deliberate intention to
shorten (see p. 66), as also in the obsolete Australian _tench_, for the
aphetic _'tentiary_, i.e., _penitentiary_. With this we may compare
_'tec_ for _detective_.
[Page Heading: APHESIS]
_Drawing-room_ is for _withdrawing room_, and only the final _t_ of
_saint_ is left in _Tooley St._, famed for its three tailors, formerly
_Saint Olave Street_, and _tawdry_. This latter word is well known to be
derived from _Saint Audrey's_ fair. It was not originally depreciatory--
"Come, you promised me a _tawdry_ lace, and a pair of sweet gloves."
(_Winter's Tale_, iv. 3.)
and the full form is recorded by Palsgrave, who has _Seynt Andries_
(read _Audrie's_) _lace_, "cordon." The verb _vie_ comes from Old Fr.
_envier_, to challenge, Lat. _invitare_, whence the phrase _à l'envi
l'un de l'autre_, "in emulation one of the other" (Cotgrave); cf. _gin_
(trap), Fr. _engin_, Lat. _ingenium_. The prefix _dis_ or _des_ is lost
in _Spencer_ (see p. 165), _spite_, _splay_, _sport_, _stain_, etc.
In _drat_, formerly _'od rot_, _zounds_ for _God's wounds_, _'sdeath_,
_odsbodikins_, etc., there is probably a deliberate avoidance of
profanity. The same intention appears in _Gogs_--
"'Ay, by _gogs-wouns_!' quoth he; and swore so loud,
That, all amaz'd, the priest let fall the book."
(_Taming of the Shrew_, iii. 2.)
_Cf._ Fr. _parbleu_ for _par Dieu_, and Ger. _Potz_ for _Gottes_.
This English tendency to aphesis is satirised in a French song of the
14th century, intentionally written in bad French. Thus, in the line--
"Or sont il vint le tans que Glais voura vauchier."[49]
_Glais_ is for _Anglais_ and _vauchier_ is for _chevauchier_
(_chevaucher_), to ride on a foray. The literary language runs counter
to this instinct, though Shakespeare wrote _haviour_ for _behaviour_ and
_longing_ for _belonging_, while such forms as _billiments_ for
_habiliments_ and _sparagus_ for _asparagus_ are regular up to the 18th
century. Children keep up the national practice when they say _member_
for _remember_ and _zamine_ for _examine_. It is quite certain that
_baccy_ and _tater_ would be recognised literary forms if America had
been discovered two centuries sooner or printing invented two centuries
later.
Many words are shortened, not by natural and gradual shrinkage, but by
deliberate laziness. The national distaste for many syllables appears in
_wire_ for _telegram_, the Artful Dodger's _wipe_ for the clumsy _pocket
handkerchief_, _soccer_ for _association_, and such portmanteau words as
_squarson_, an individual who is at once _squire_ and _parson_, or
_Bakerloo_ for _Baker St. and Waterloo_.
The simplest way of reducing a word is to take the first syllable and
make it a symbol for the rest. Of comparatively modern formation are
_pub_ and _Zoo_, with which we may compare _Bart's_, for Saint
Bartholomew's, _Cri_, _Pav_, "half a _mo'_" _bike_, and even _paj_, for
_pageant_.
[Page Heading: CLIPPED FORMS]
This method of shortening words was very popular in the 17th century,
from which period date _cit_(izen), _mob_(ile vulgus), the fickle crowd,
and, _pun_(digrion). We often find the fuller _mobile_ used for _mob_.
The origin of _pundigrion_ is uncertain. It may be an illiterate attempt
at Ital. _puntiglio_, which, like Fr. _pointe_, was used of a verbal
quibble or fine distinction. Most of these clipped forms are easily
identified, e.g., _cab_(riolet), _gent_(leman), _hack_(ney),
_vet_(erinary surgeon). _Cad_ is for Scot. _caddie_, errand boy, now
familiar in connection with golf, and _caddie_ is from Fr. _cadet_,
younger. The word had not always the very strong meaning we now
associate with it. Among _Sketches by Boz_ is one entitled--
"The last Cab driver and the first Omnibus _Cad_,"
where _cad_ means conductor. On _tick_, for on _ticket_, is found in the
17th century. We may compare the more modern _biz_ and _spec_. _Brig_ is
for _brigantine_, Ital. _brigantino_, "a kinde of pinnasse or small
barke called a _brigantine_" (Florio). The original meaning is pirate
ship; cf. _brigand_. _Wag_ has improved in meaning. It is for older
_waghalter_. Cotgrave has _baboin_ (_babouin_), "a trifling, busie, or
crafty knave; a crackrope, _waghalter_, etc." The older sense survives
in the phrase "to play the _wag_," _i.e._ truant. For the "rope" figure
we may compare Scot. _hempie_, a minx, and obsolete Ital. _cavestrolo_,
a diminutive from Lat. _capistrum_, halter, explained by Florio as "a
_wag_, a haltersacke." Modern Ital. _capestro_ is used in the same
sense. _Crack-rope_ is shortened to _crack_. Justice Shallow remembered
Falstaff breaking Skogan's head--
"When he was a _crack_, not thus high."
(2 _Henry IV._, iii. 2.)
_Chap_ is for _chapman_, once in general use for a merchant and still a
common family name. It is cognate with _cheap_, _chaffer_, and Ger.
_kaufen_, to buy, and probably comes from Lat. _caupo_, tavern keeper.
We have the Dutch form in _horse-coper_, and also in the word
_coopering_, the illicit sale of spirits by Dutch boats to North Sea
fishermen.[50] _Merchant_ was used by the Elizabethans in the same way
as our _chap_. Thus the Countess of Auvergne calls Talbot a "riddling
_merchant_" (1 _Henry VI._, ii. 3). We may also compare Scot.
_callant_, lad, from the Picard form of Fr. _chaland_, customer--
"He had seen many a braw callant, far less than Guse Gibbie, fight
brawly under Montrose."
(_Old Mortality_, Ch. 1.)
and our own expression "a rum _customer_," reduced in America to "a rum
_cuss_." _Hock_, for _Hochheimer_, wine from Hochheim, occurs as early
as Beaumont and Fletcher; and _rum_, spirit, is for earlier
_rumbullion_, of obscure origin. _Gin_ is for _geneva_, a corruption of
Fr. _genièvre_, Lat. _juniperus_, with the berries of which it is
flavoured. The history of _grog_ is more complicated. The stuff called
_grogram_, earlier _grograyne_, is from Fr. _gros grain_, coarse grain.
Admiral Vernon (18th century) was called by the sailors "Old Grog" from
his habit of wearing grogram breeches. When he issued orders that the
regular allowance of rum was henceforth to be diluted with water, the
sailors promptly baptized the mixture with his nickname.
[Page Heading: CLIPPED FORMS]
Sometimes the two first syllables survive. We have _navvy_ for
_navigator_, _brandy_ for _brandywine_, from Du. _brandewyn_, lit. burnt
wine, and _whisky_ for _usquebaugh_, Gaelic _uisge-beatha_, water of
life (cf. _eau-de-vie_), so that the literal meaning of _whisky_ is very
innocent. It has a doublet in the river-name _Usk_. Before the 18th
century _usquebaugh_ is the regular form. In the following passage the
Irish variety is referred to--
"The prime is _usquebaugh_, which cannot be made anywhere in that
perfection; and whereas we drink it here in _aqua vitæ_ measures, it
goes down there by beer-glassfuls, being more natural to the
nation."
(HOWELL, 1634.)
_Canter_ is for _Canterbury_ gallop, the pace of pilgrims riding to the
shrine of St Thomas. John Dennis, known as Dennis the Critic, says of
Pope--
"Boileau's Pegasus has all his paces. The Pegasus of Pope, like a
Kentish post-horse, is always on the _Canterbury_."
(_On the Preliminaries to the Dunciad._)
In _bugle_, for _bugle-horn_, lit. wild-ox-horn, Old Fr. _bugle_, Lat.
_buculus_, a diminutive of _bos_, ox, we have perhaps rather an
ellipsis, like _waterproof_ (coat), than a clipped form--
"Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet 'tis early morn:
Leave me here, and when you want me, sound upon the _bugle-horn_."
(_Locksley Hall._)
_Patter_ is no doubt for _paternoster_--
"Fitz-Eustace, you, with Lady Clare,
May bid your beads and _patter_ prayer."
(_Marmion_, vi. 27.)
and the use of the word _marble_ for a toy sometimes made of that stone
makes it very probable that the _alley_, most precious of marbles, is
short for _alabaster_.
Less frequently the final syllable is selected, e.g., _bus_ for
_omnibus_, _loo_ for _lanterloo_, variously spelt in the 17th and 18th
centuries--
"Ev'n mighty Pam,[51] that Kings and Queens o'erthrew,
And mow'd down armies in the fights of _lu_."
(_Rape of the Lock_, iii. 62.)
Fr. _lanturelu_ was originally the meaningless refrain or "tol de rol"
of a popular song in Richelieu's time. _Van_ is for _caravan_, a Persian
word, properly a company of merchants or ships travelling together,
"also of late corruptly used with us for a kind of waggon to carry
passengers to and from London" (Blount, _Glossographia_, 1674). _Wig_ is
for _periwig_, a corruption of Fr. _perruque_, of obscure origin. With
the 17th century _'varsity_, for _university_, we may compare Sam
Weller's _'Tizer_, for _Morning Advertiser_.
Christian names are treated in the same way. _Alexander_ gives _Alec_
and _Sandy_, _Herbert_, _'Erb_ or _Bert_. _Ib_ (see p. 172) was once
common for _Isabella_, while the modern language prefers _Bella_; _Maud_
for _Matilda_ is a telescoped form of Old Fr. _Maheut_, while _'Tilda_
is perhaps due to unconscious aphesis, like _Denry_--
"She saved a certain amount of time every day by addressing her son
as _Denry_, instead of _Edward Henry_."
(ARNOLD BENNETT, _The Card_, Ch. 1.)
Among conscious word-formations may be classed many reduplicated forms,
whether riming, as _hurly-burly_, or alliterative, as _tittle-tattle_,
though reduplication belongs to the natural speech of children, and, in
at least one case, Fr. _tante_, from _ante-ante_, Lat. _amita_, the baby
word has prevailed. In a reduplicated form only one half as a rule needs
to be explained. Thus _seesaw_ is from _saw_, the motion suggesting two
sawyers at work on a log. _Zigzag_, from French, and Ger. _zickzack_ are
of unknown origin. _Shilly-shally_ is for _shill I, shall I?_
_Namby-pamby_ commemorates the poet Ambrose Philips, who was thus
nicknamed by Pope and his friends. The weapon called a _snickersnee_--
"'First let me say my catechism,
Which my poor mammy taught to me.'
'Make haste, make haste,' says guzzling Jimmy,
While Jack pulled out his _snickersnee_."
(THACKERAY, _Little Billee_, l. 21.)
is of Dutch origin and means something like "cut and thrust." It is
usually mentioned in connection with the Hollanders--
"Among other customs they have in that town, one is, that none must
carry a pointed knife about him; which makes the Hollander, who is
us'd to _snik_ and _snee_, to leave his horn-sheath and knife a
ship-board when he comes ashore."
(HOWELL, _Letter from Florence_, 1621.)
Here the reduplication is only apparent, for the older form was to
_stick_ or _snee_, representing the Dutch verbs _steken_, to thrust,
_snijden_ or _snijen_, to cut. The initial of the first verb has been
assimilated to that of the second--
"It is our countrie custome onely to _stick_ or _snee_."
(GLAPTHORNE, _The Hollander_.)
Reduplication is responsible for _pickaback_, earlier _pickpack_, from
_pack_, bundle. The modern form is due to popular association with
_back_.
[Page Heading: PREFIXED CONSONANTS]
Occasionally we have what is apparently the arbitrary prefixing of a
consonant, e.g., _spruce_ for _pruce_ (p. 48). _Dapple gray_ corresponds
so exactly to Fr. _gris pommelé_, Mid. Eng. _pomeli gris_, Ger.
_apfelgrau_, and Ital. _pomellato_, "spotted, bespeckled, pide,
_dapple-graie_, or fleabitten, the colour of a horse" (Florio), that it
is hard not to believe in an unrecorded _*apple-gray_, especially as we
have _daffodil_ for earlier _affodil_, i.e., _asphodel_. Cotgrave has
_asphodile_ (_asphodèle_), "the _daffadill_, _affodill_, or _asphodill_,
flower." The playful elaboration _daffadowndilly_ is as old as Spenser.
FOOTNOTES:
[42]
"Nec sibi postilla metuebant talia verba,
Cum subito adfertur nuntius horribilis,
Ionios fluctus, postquam illuc Arrius isset,
Iam non _Ionios_ esse, sed _Hionios_."
(_Catullus_, 84.)
[43] Apart from assimilation, there is a tendency in English to
substitute _-m_ for _-n_, e.g. _grogram_ for _grogran_ (see p. 68). In
the family name _Hansom_, for _Hanson_, we have dissimilation of _n_
(see p. 57).
[44] _Cf._ the similar change in the family name _Banister_ (p. 179).
[45] It may be noted here that a _buccaneer_ was not originally a
pirate, but a man whose business was the smoking of beef in the West
Indies. The name comes from a native word _boucan_, adopted into French,
and explained by Cotgrave as a "woodden-gridiron whereon the cannibals
broile pieces of men, and other flesh."
[46] _Upholsterer_ has become specialised in sense; cf. _undertaker_ (of
funerals), and _stationer_, properly a tradesman with a _station_ or
stall. _Costermonger_ illustrates the converse process. It meant
originally a dealer in _costards_, i.e. apples. The French costermonger
has the more appropriate name of _marchand des quatre saisons_.
[47] English _i_ sometimes occurs as an attempt at the French and Celtic
_u_; cf. _brisk_ from _brusque_, _periwig_ (p. 69), and _whisky_ (p.
68).
[48] Our ancestors appear to have been essentially pacific. With
_fence_, for _defence_, we may compare Ger. _schirmen_, to fence, from
_Schirm_, screen (cf. _Regenschirm_, umbrella), which, passing through
Italian and French, has given us _skirmish_, _scrimmage_, _scaramouch_
(see p. 142), and Shakespearean _scrimer_, fencer (_Hamlet_, iv. 7). So
also Ger. _Gewehr_, weapon, is cognate with Eng. _weir_, and means
defence--
"Cet animal est très méchant;
Quand on l'attaque, il se défend."
[49] "Now the time has come when the English will wish to ride."
[50] _Cf._ also Dan. _Kjöbenhavn_ (Copenhagen), the merchants' haven,
the numerous Swedish place-names ending in _-köping_, e.g. _Jönköping_,
and our own _Chippings_, or market-towns.
[51] The knave of clubs. The name was also given to Lord Palmerston.
CHAPTER VI
WORDS AND MEANINGS
We have all noticed the fantastic way in which ideas are linked together
in our thoughts. One thing suggests another with which it is
accidentally associated in memory, the second suggests a third, and, in
the course even of a few seconds, we find that we have travelled from
one subject to another so remote that it requires an effort to
reconstruct the series of links which connects them. The same thing
happens with words. A large number of words, despite great changes of
sense, retain the fundamental meaning of the original, but in many cases
this is quite lost. A truer image than that of the linked chain would be
that of a sphere giving off in various directions a number of rays each
of which may form the nucleus of a fresh sphere. Or we may say that at
each link of the chain there is a possibility of another chain branching
off in a direction of its own. In Cotgrave's time to _garble_ (see p.
21) and to _canvass_, _i.e._ sift through _canvas_, meant the same
thing. Yet how different is their later sense development.
[Page Heading: BAN--BUREAU]
There is a word _ban_, found in Old High German and Anglo-Saxon, and
meaning, as far back as it can be traced, a proclamation containing a
threat, hence a command or prohibition. We have it in _banish_, to put
under the _ban_. The proclamation idea survives in the _banns_ of
marriage and in Fr. _arrière-ban_, "a proclamation, whereby those that
hold authority of the king in mesne tenure, are summoned to assemble,
and serve him in his warres" (Cotgrave). This is folk-etymology for Old
Fr. _arban_, Old High Ger. _hari-ban_, army summons. Slanting off from
the primitive idea of proclamation is that of rule or authority. The
French for outskirts is _banlieue_, properly the "circuit of a league,
or thereabouts" (Cotgrave) over which the local authority extended. All
public institutions within such a radius were associated with _ban_,
e.g., _un four_, _un moulin à ban_, "a comon oven or mill whereat all
men may, and every tenant and vassall must, bake, and grind" (Cotgrave).
The French adjective _banal_, used in this connection, gradually
developed from the meaning of "common" that of "common-place," in which
sense it is now familiar in English.[52]
_Bureau_, a desk, was borrowed from French in the 17th century. In
modern French it means not only the desk, but also the office itself and
the authority exercised by the office. Hence our familiar _bureaucracy_,
likely to become increasingly familiar. The desk was so called because
covered with _bureau_, Old Fr. _burel_, "a thicke course cloath, of a
brown russet, or darke mingled, colour" (Cotgrave), whence Mid. Eng.
_borel_, rustic, clownish, lit. roughly clad, which occurs as late as
Spenser--
"How be I am but rude and _borrel_,
Yet nearer ways I know."
(_Shepherd's Calendar_, July, l. 95.)
With this we may compare the metaphorical use of _home-spun_--
"What hempen _home-spuns_ have we swaggering here,
So near the cradle of the fairy queen?"
(_Midsummer Night's Dream_, iii. 1.)
The source of Old Fr. _burel_ is perhaps Lat. _burrus_, fiery, from Gk.
{pyr}, fire.
_Romance_ was originally an adverb. To write in the vulgar tongue,
instead of in classical Latin, was called _romanice scribere_, Old Fr.
_romanz escrire_. When _romanz_ became felt as a noun, it developed a
"singular" _roman_ or _romant_, the latter of which gave the archaic
Eng. _romaunt_. The most famous of Old French romances are the epic
poems called _Chansons de geste_, songs of exploits, _geste_ coming from
the Lat. _gesta_, deeds. Eng. _gest_ or _jest_ is common in the 16th and
17th centuries in the sense of act, deed, and _jest_-book meant a
story-book. As the favourite story-books were merry tales, the word
gradually acquired its present meaning.
A part of our Anglo-Saxon church vocabulary was supplanted by Latin or
French words. Thus Anglo-Sax. _ge-bed_, prayer, was gradually expelled
by Old Fr. _preiere_ (_prière_), Lat. _precaria_. It has survived in
_beadsman_--
"The _beadsman_, after thousand aves told,
For aye unsought-for slept among his ashes cold."
(KEATS, _Eve of St Agnes_.)
_beadroll_, and _bead_, now applied only to the humble device employed
in counting prayers.
Not only the Romance languages, but also German and Dutch, adopted, with
the Roman character, Lat. _scribere_, to write. English, on the
contrary, preserved the native to _write_, _i.e._ to scratch (runes),
giving to _scribere_ only a limited sense, to _shrive_. The curious
change of meaning was perhaps due to the fact that the priestly
absolution was felt as having the validity of a "written" law or
enactment.
[Page Heading: PUDDING--STICKLER]
The meaning which we generally give to _pudding_ is comparatively
modern. The older sense appears in _black pudding_, a sausage made of
pig's blood. This is also the meaning of Fr. _boudin_, whence _pudding_
comes. A still older meaning of both words is intestine, a sense still
common in dialect. The derivation of the word is obscure, but it is
probably related to Fr. _bouder_, to pout, whence _boudoir_, lit. a
sulking-room.
A _hearse_, now the vehicle in which a coffin is carried, is used by
Shakespeare for a coffin or tomb. Its earlier meaning is a framework to
support candles, usually put round the coffin at a funeral. This
framework was so named from some resemblance to a harrow,[53] Fr.
_herse_, Lat. _hirpex_, _hirpic-_, a rake.
_Treacle_ is a stock example of great change of meaning. It is used in
Coverdale's Bible (1535) for the "_balm_ in Gilead" of the _Authorised
Version_--
"There is no more _triacle_ at Galaad."[54]
(Jeremiah, vii. 22.)
Old Fr. _triacle_ is from Greco-Lat. _theriaca_, a remedy against poison
or snake-bite ({thêr}, a wild beast). In Mid. English and later it was
used of a sovereign remedy. It has, like _sirup_ (p. 146), acquired its
present meaning _via_ the apothecary's shop.
A _stickler_ is now a man who is fussy about small points of etiquette
or procedure. In Shakespeare he is one who parts combatants--
"The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth,
And, _stickler_-like, the armies separates."
(_Troilus and Cressida_, v. 8.)
An earlier sense is that of seeing fair-play. The word has been
popularly associated with the _stick_, or staff, used by the umpires in
duels, and Torriano gives _stickler_ as one of the meanings of
_bastoniere_, a verger or mace-bearer. But it probably comes from Mid.
Eng. _stightlen_, to arrange, keep order (see p. 172, _n._ 2).
_Infantry_ comes, through French, from Italian. It means a collection of
"infants" or juniors, so called by contrast with the proved veterans who
composed the cavalry.
The _pastern_ of a horse, defined by Dr Johnson as the knee, from
"ignorance, madam, pure ignorance," still means in Cotgrave and Florio
"shackle." Florio even recognises a verb to _pastern_, e.g.,
_pastoiare_, "to fetter, to clog, to shackle, to _pastern_, to give
(gyve)." It comes from Old Fr. _pasturon_ (_paturon_), a derivative of
_pasture_, such shackles being used to prevent grazing horses from
straying. _Pester_ (p. 167) is connected with it. The modern Fr.
_paturon_ has changed its meaning in the same way.
To _rummage_ means in the Elizabethan navigators to stow goods in a
hold. A rummager was what we call a _stevedore_.[55] _Rummage_ is Old
Fr. _arrumage_ (_arrimage_), from _arrumer_, to stow, the middle
syllable of which is probably cognate with English _room_; cf.
_arranger_, to put in "rank."
The Christmas _waits_ were originally watchmen, Anglo-Fr. _waite_, Old
Fr. _gaite_, from the Old High German form of modern Ger. _Wacht_,
watch. Modern French still has the verb _guetter_, to lie in wait for,
and _guet_, the watch. _Minstrel_ comes from an Old French derivative of
Lat. _minister_, servant. Modern Fr. _ménétrier_ is only used of a
country fiddler who attends village weddings.
The _lumber_-room is supposed to be for _Lombard_ room, _i.e._, the room
in which pawnbrokers used to store pledged property. The Lombards
introduced into this country the three balls, said to be taken from the
arms of the Medici family.
[Page Heading: LIVERY--FAIRY]
_Livery_ is correctly explained by the poet Spenser--
"What _livery_ is, we by common use in England know well enough,
namely, that it is allowance of horse-meat, as they commonly use the
word in stabling; as, to keep horses at _livery_; the which word, I
guess, is derived of _livering_ or _delivering_ forth their nightly
food. So in great houses, the _livery_ is said to be served up for
all night, that is, their evening allowance for drink; and _livery_
is also called the upper weed (see p. 2) which a serving-man wears;
so called, as I suppose, for that it was _delivered_ and taken from
him at pleasure."
(_View of the State of Ireland._)
This passage explains also _livery_ stable.[56] Our word comes from Fr.
_livrée_, the feminine past participle of _livrer_, from Lat.
_liberare_, to deliver.
_Pedigree_ was in Mid. English _pedegrew_, _petigrew_, etc. It
represents Old Fr. _pie (pied) de grue_, crane's foot, from the shape of
a sign used in showing lines of descent in genealogical charts. The
older form survives in the family name _Pettigrew_. Here it is a
nickname, like _Pettifer_ (pied de fer), iron-foot; cf. _Sheepshanks_.
_Fairy_ is a collective, Fr. _féerie_, its modern use being perhaps due
to its occurrence in such phrases as _Faerie Queen_, _i.e._, Queen of
Fairyland. Cf. _paynim_, used by some poets for _pagan_, but really a
doublet of _paganism_, occurring in _paynim host_, _paynim knight_, etc.
The correct name for the individual _fairy_ is _fay_, Fr. _fée_, Vulgar
Lat. _*fata_, connected with _fatum_, fate. This appears in Ital.
_fata_, "a fairie, a witch, an enchantres, an elfe" (Florio). The _fata
morgana_, the mirage sometimes seen in the Strait of Messina, is
attributed to the fairy Morgana of Tasso, the Morgan le Fay of our own
Arthurian legends.
Many people must have wondered at some time why the _clubs_ and _spades_
on cards are so called. The latter figure, it is true, bears some
resemblance to a spade, but no giant of fiction is depicted with a club
with a triple head. The explanation is that we have adopted the French
pattern, _carreau_ (see p. 161), diamond, _c[oe]ur_, heart, _pique_,
pike, spear-head, _trèfle_, trefoil, clover-leaf, but have given to the
two latter the names used in the Italian and Spanish pattern, which,
instead of the pike and trefoil, has the sword (Ital. _spada_) and mace
(Ital. _bastone_). Etymologically both _spades_ are identical, the
origin being Greco-Lat. _spatha_, the name of a number of blade-shaped
objects; _cf._ the diminutive _spatula_.
_Wafer_, in both its senses, is related to Ger. _Wabe_, honeycomb. We
find Anglo-Fr. _wafre_ in the sense of a thin cake, perhaps stamped with
a honeycomb pattern. The cognate Fr. _gaufre_ is the name of a similar
cake, which not only has the honeycomb pattern, but is also largely
composed of honey. Hence our verb to _goffer_, to give a cellular
appearance to a frill.
[Page Heading: MEANINGS OF ADJECTIVES]
The meanings of adjectives are especially subject to change. _Quaint_
now conveys the idea of what is unusual, and, as early as the 17th
century, we find it explained as "strange, unknown." This is the exact
opposite of its original meaning, Old Fr. _cointe_, Lat. _cognitus_; cf.
_acquaint_, Old Fr. _acointier_, to make known. It is possible to trace
roughly the process by which this remarkable _volte-face_ has been
brought about. The intermediate sense of trim or pretty is common in
Shakespeare--
"For a fine, _quaint_, graceful, and excellent fashion, yours is
worth ten on't."
(_Much Ado_, iii. 4.)
We apply _restive_ to a horse that will not stand still. It means
properly a horse that will not do anything else. Fr. _rétif_, Old Fr.
_restif_, from _rester_, to remain, Lat. _re-stare_, has kept more of
the original sense of stubbornness. Scot. _reest_, _reist_, means to
stand stock-still--
"Certain it was that Shagram _reisted_, and I ken Martin thinks he
saw something."
(_Monastery_, Ch. 4.)
Dryden even uses _restive_ in the sense of sluggish--
"So James the drowsy genius wakes
Of Britain, long entranced in charms,
_Restive_, and slumbering on its arms."
(_Threnodia Augustalis._)
_Reasty_, used of meat that has "stood" too long, is the same word (cf.
_testy_, Old Fr. _testif_, heady), and _rusty_ bacon is probably
folk-etymology for _reasty_ bacon--
"And then came haltyng Jone,
And brought a gambone
Of bakon that was _reasty_."
(SKELTON, _Elynour Rummyng_.)
_Sterling_ has an obscure history. It is from Old Fr. _esterlin_, a coin
which etymologists of an earlier age connected with the _Easterlings_,
or Hanse merchants, who formed one of the great mercantile communities
of the Middle Ages; and perhaps some such association is responsible for
the meaning that _sterling_ has acquired; but chronology shows this
traditional etymology to be impossible. We find _unus sterlingus_ in a
medieval Latin document of 1184, and the Old Fr. _esterlin_ occurs in
Wace's _Roman de Rou_ (Romaunt of Rollo the Sea King), which was written
before 1175. Hence it is conjectured that the original coin was named
from the _star_ which appears on some Norman pennies.
When Horatio says--
"It is a nipping and an _eager_ air."
(_Hamlet_, i. 4.)
we are reminded that _eager_ is identical with the second part of
vin-_egar_, Fr. _aigre_, sour, Lat. _acer_, keen. It seems hardly
possible to explain the modern sense of _nice_, which in the course of
its history has traversed nearly the whole diatonic scale between
"rotten" and "ripping." In Mid. English and Old French it means foolish.
Cotgrave explains it by "lither, lazie, sloathful, idle; faint, slack;
dull, simple," and Shakespeare uses it in a great variety of meanings.
It is supposed to come from Lat. _nescius_, ignorant. The transition
from _fond_, foolish, which survives in "_fond_ hopes," to _fond_,
loving, is easy. French _fou_ is used in exactly the same way. _Cf._
also to _dote_ on, _i.e._, to be foolish about. _Puny_ is Fr. _puîné_,
from _puis né_, later born, junior, whence the _puisne_ justices. Milton
uses it of a minor--
"He must appear in print like a _puny_ with his guardian."
(_Areopagitica._)
_Petty_, Fr. _petit_, was similarly used for a small boy.
In some cases a complimentary adjective loses its true meaning and takes
on a contemptuous or ironic sense. None of us care to be called _bland_,
and to describe a man as _worthy_ is to apologise for his existence. We
may compare Fr. _bonhomme_, which now means generally an old fool, and
_bonne femme_, good-wife, goody. _Dapper_, the Dutch for brave (_cf._
Ger. _tapfer_), and _pert_, Mid. Eng. _apert_, representing in meaning
Lat. _expertus_, have changed much since Milton wrote of--
"The _pert_ fairies and the _dapper_ elves."
(_Comus_, l. 118.)
_Pert_ seems in fact to have acquired the meaning of its opposite
_malapert_, though the older sense of brisk, sprightly, survives in
dialect--
"He looks spry and _peart_ for once."
(Phillpotts, _American Prisoner_, Ch. 3.)
_Smug_, cognate with Ger. _schmuck_, trim, elegant, beautiful, has its
original sense in Shakespeare--
"And here the _smug_ and silver Trent shall run
In a new channel, fair and evenly."
(1 _Henry IV._, iii. 1.)
The degeneration of an adjective is sometimes due to its employment for
euphemistic purposes. The favourite substitute for _fat_ is _stout_,
properly strong,[57] dauntless, etc., cognate with Ger. _stolz_, proud.
Precisely the same euphemism appears in French, e.g., "une dame un peu
_forte_." _Ugly_ is replaced in English by _plain_, and in American by
_homely_--
"She is not so handsome as these, maybe, but her _homeliness_ is not
actually alarming."
(MAX ADELER, _Mr Skinner's Night in the Underworld_.)
In the case of this word, as in many others, the American use preserves
a meaning which was once common in English. Kersey's _Dictionary_ (1720)
explains _homely_ as "ugly, disagreeable, course (coarse), mean."
[Page Heading: INFLUENCE OF ASSOCIATION]
Change of meaning may be brought about by association. A _miniature_ is
a small portrait, and we even use the word as an adjective meaning
small, on a reduced scale. But the true sense of _miniature_ is
something painted in _minium_, red lead. Florio explains _miniatura_ as
"a limning (see p. 63), a painting with vermilion." Such paintings were
usually small, hence the later meaning. The word was first applied to
the ornamental red initial capitals in manuscripts. _Vignette_ still
means technically in French an interlaced vine-pattern on a
frontispiece.[58] Cotgrave has _vignettes_, "vignets; branches, or
branch-like borders, or flourishes in painting, or ingravery."
The degeneration in the meaning of a noun may be partly due to frequent
association with disparaging adjectives. Thus _hussy_, _i.e._ housewife,
_quean_,[59] woman, _wench_, child, have absorbed such adjectives as
impudent, idle, light, saucy, etc. Shakespeare uses _quean_ only three
times, and these three include "cozening _quean_" (_Merry Wives_, iv. 2)
and "scolding _quean_" (_All's Well_, ii. 2). With _wench_, still used
without any disparaging sense by country folk, we may compare Fr.
_garce_, lass, and Ger. _Dirne_, maid-servant, both of which are now
insulting epithets, but, in the older language, could be applied to Joan
of Arc and the Virgin Mary respectively. _Garce_ was replaced by
_fille_, which has acquired in its turn a meaning so offensive that it
has now given way to _jeune fille_. _Minx_, earlier _minkes_, is
probably the Low Ger. _minsk_, Ger. _Mensch_, lit. human, but used also
in the sense of "wench." For the consonantal change cf. _hunks_, Dan.
_hundsk_, stingy, lit. doggish. These examples show that the indignant
"Who are you calling a _woman_?" is, philologically, in all likelihood a
case of intelligent anticipation.
[Page Heading: BUXOM--PLUCK]
Adjectives are affected in their turn by being regularly coupled with
certain nouns. A _buxom_ help-mate was once obedient, the word being
cognate with Ger. _biegsam_, flexible, yielding--
"The place where thou and Death
Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen
Wing silently the _buxom_ air."
(_Paradise Lost_, ii. 840.)
An obedient nature is "_buxom_, blithe and debonair," qualities which
affect the physique and result in heartiness of aspect and a comely
plumpness. An _arch_ damsel is etymologically akin to an _arch_bishop,
both descending from the Greek prefix {archi}, from {archê}, a
beginning, first cause. Shakespeare uses _arch_ as a noun--
"The noble duke my master,
My worthy _arch_ and patron comes to-night."
(_Lear_, ii. 1.)
Occurring chiefly in such phrases as _arch_ enemy, _arch_ heretic,
_arch_ hypocrite, _arch_ rogue, it acquired a depreciatory sense, which
has now become so weakened that _archness_ is not altogether an
unpleasing attribute. We may compare the cognate German prefix _Erz_.
Ludwig has, as successive entries, _Ertz-dieb_, "an arch-thief, an
arrant thief," and _Ertz-engel_, "an arch-angel." The meaning of
_arrant_ is almost entirely due to association with "thief." It means
lit. wandering, vagabond, so that the _arrant_ thief is nearly related
to the knight _errant_, and to the Justices in _eyre_, Old Fr. _eire_,
Lat. _iter_, a way, journey. Fr. _errer_, to wander, stray, is
compounded of Vulgar Lat. _iterare_, to journey, and Lat. _errare_, to
stray, and it would be difficult to calculate how much of each enters
into the composition of _le Juif errant_.
As I have suggested above, association accounts to some extent for
changes of meaning, but the process is in reality more complex, and
usually a number of factors are working together or in opposition to
each other. A low word may gradually acquire right of citizenship. "That
article blackguardly called _pluck_" (Scott) is now much respected. It
is the same word as _pluck_, the heart, liver, and lungs of an animal--
"During the Crimean war, _plucky_, signifying courageous, seemed
likely to become a favourite term in Mayfair, even among the
ladies."
(HOTTEN'S _Slang Dictionary_, 1864.)
Having become respectable, it is now replaced in sporting circles by the
more emphatic _guts_, which reproduces the original metaphor. A word may
die out in its general sense, surviving only in some special meaning.
Thus the poetic _sward_, scarcely used except with "green," meant
originally the skin or crust of anything. It is cognate with Ger.
_Schwarte_, "the _sward_, or rind, of a thing" (Ludwig), which now means
especially bacon-rind. Related words may meet with very different fates
in kindred languages. Eng. _knight_ is cognate with Ger. _Knecht_,
servant, which had, in Mid. High German, a wide range of meanings,
including "warrior, hero." There is no more complimentary epithet than
_knightly_, while Ger. _knechtisch_ means servile. The degeneration of
words like _boor_,[60] _churl_, farmer, is a familiar phenomenon (cf.
_villain_, p. 150). The same thing has happened to _blackguard_, the
modern meaning of which bears hardly on a humble but useful class. The
name _black guard_ was given collectively to the kitchen detachment of a
great man's retinue. The _scavenger_ has also come down in the world,
rather an unusual phenomenon in the case of official titles. The
medieval _scavager_[61] was an important official who seems to have been
originally a kind of inspector of customs. He was called in Anglo-French
_scawageour_, from the noun _scawage_, showing. The Old French dialect
verb _escauwer_ is of Germanic origin and cognate with Eng. _show_ and
Ger. _schauen_, to look. The _cheater_, now usually _cheat_, probably
deserved his fate. The _escheators_ looked after _escheats_, _i.e._,
estates or property that lapsed and were forfeited. The origin of the
word is Old Fr. _escheoir_ (_échoir_), to fall due, Vulgar Lat. _ex
*cad[=e]re_ for _cad[)e]re_. Their reputation was unsavoury, and _cheat_
has already its present meaning in Shakespeare. He also plays on the
double meaning--
"I will be _cheater_ to them both, and they shall be exchequers to
me."
(_Merry Wives_, i. 3.)
[Page Heading: CHEAT--BELCHER]
_Beldam_ implies "hag" as early as Shakespeare, but he also uses it in
its proper sense of "grandmother," _e.g._, Hotspur refers to "old
_beldam_ earth" and "our _grandam_ earth" in the same speech (1 _Henry
IV._, iii. 1), and Milton speaks of "_beldam_ nature"--
"Then sing of secret things that came to pass
When _Beldam_ Nature in her cradle was."
(_Vacation Exercise_, l. 46.)
It is of course from _belle-dame_, used in Mid. English for grandmother,
as _belsire_ was for grandfather. Hence it is a doublet of _belladonna_.
The masculine _belsire_ survives as a family name, _Belcher_[62]; and to
Jim Belcher, most gentlemanly of prize-fighters, we owe the _belcher_
handkerchief, which had large white spots with a dark blue dot in the
centre of each on a medium blue ground. It was also known to the "fancy"
as a "bird's-eye wipe."
FOOTNOTES:
[52] Archaic Eng. _bannal_ already existed in the technical sense.
[53] This is the usual explanation. But Fr. _herse_ also acquired the
meaning "portcullis," the pointed bars of which were naturally likened
to the blades of a harrow; and it seems possible that it is to this
later sense that we owe the older English meaning of _hearse_ (see p.
154).
[54] "Numquid _resina_ non est in Galaad?" (_Vulgate._)
[55] A Spanish word, Lat. _stipator_, "one that stoppeth chinkes"
(Cooper). It came to England in connection with the wool trade.
[56] In "livery and bait" there is pleonasm. _Bait_, connected with
_bite_, is the same word as in bear-_baiting_ and fishermen's _bait_. We
have it also, _via_ Old French, in _abet_, whence the aphetic _bet_,
originally to egg on.
[57] Hence the use of _stout_ for a "strong" beer. _Porter_ was once the
favourite tap of _porters_, and a mixture of stout and ale, now known as
_cooper_, was especially relished by the brewery _cooper_.
[58] Folk-etymology for _frontispice_, Lat. _frontispicium_, front view.
[59] Related to, but not identical with, _queen_.
[60] The older meaning of _boor_ survives in the compound _neighbour_,
i.e., _nigh boor_, the farmer near at hand. Du. _boer_ is of course the
same word.
[61] English regularly inserts _n_ in words thus formed; cf.
_harbinger_, _messenger_, _passenger_, _pottinger_, _etc._
[62] Other forms of the same name are _Bowser_ and _Bewsher_. The form
_Belcher_ is Picard--
"On assomma la pauvre bête.
Un manant lui coupa le pied droit et la tête.
Le seigneur du village à sa porte les mit;
Et ce dicton picard à l'entour fut écrit:
'_Biaux chires_ leups, n'écoutez mie
Mère tenchent (grondant) chen fieux (son fils) qui crie.'"
(LA FONTAINE, _Fables_, iv. 16.)
CHAPTER VII
SEMANTICS
The convenient name semantics has been applied of late to the science of
meanings, as distinguished from phonetics, the science of sound. The
comparative study of languages enables us to observe and codify the
general laws which govern sense development, and to understand why
meanings become extended or restricted. One phenomenon which seems to
occur normally in language results from what we may call the simplicity
of the olden times. Thus the whole vocabulary which is etymologically
related to _writing_ and _books_ has developed from an old Germanic verb
that means to _scratch_ and the Germanic name for the _beech_. Our
earliest books were wooden tablets on which inscriptions were scratched.
The word _book_ itself comes from Anglo-Sax. _b[=o]c_, beech; _cf._ Ger.
_Buchstabe_, letter, lit. beech-stave. Lat. _liber_, book, whence a
large family of words in the Romance languages, means the inner bark of
a tree, and _bible_ is ultimately from Greek {byblos}, the inner rind of
the _papyrus_, the Egyptian rush from which _paper_ was made.[63]
The earliest measurements were calculated from the human body. All
European languages use the _foot_, and we still measure horses by
_hands_, while _span_ survives in table-books. _Cubit_ is Latin for
_elbow_, the first part of which is the same as _ell_, cognate with Lat.
_ulna_, also used in both senses. Fr. _brasse_, fathom, is Lat.
_brachia_, the two arms, and _pouce_, thumb, means inch. A further set
of measures are represented by simple devices: a _yard_[64] is a small
"stick," and the _rod_, _pole_, or _perch_ (cf. _perch_ for birds, Fr.
_perche_, pole) which gives charm to our arithmetic is a larger one. A
_furlong_ is a _furrow-long_. For weights common objects were used,
_e.g._, a _grain_, or a _scruple_, Lat. _scrupulus_, "a little sharpe
stone falling sometime into a man's shooe" (Cooper), for very small
things, a _stone_ for heavier goods. Gk. {drachma}, whence our _dram_,
means a handful. Our decimal system is due to our possession of ten
_digits_, or fingers, and _calculation_ comes from Lat. _calculus_, a
pebble.
[Page Heading: FINANCIAL TERMS]
A modern Chancellor of the Exchequer, considering his budget, is not so
near the reality of things as his medieval predecessor, who literally
sat in his counting-house, counting up his money. For the _exchequer_,
named from the Old Fr. _eschequier_ (_échiquier_), chess-board, was once
the board marked out in squares on which the treasurer reckoned up with
counters the king's taxes. This Old Fr. _eschequier_, which has also
given _chequer_, is a derivative of Old Fr. _eschec_ (_échec_), check.
Thus "_check_ trousers" and a "_chequered_ career" are both directly
related to an eastern potentate (see _chess_, p. 120.). The
_chancellor_ himself was originally a kind of door-keeper in charge of a
_chancel_, a latticed barrier which we now know in church architecture
only. _Chancel_ is derived, through Fr. _chancel_ or _cancel_, from Lat.
_cancellus_, a cross-bar, occurring more usually in the plural in the
sense of lattice, grating. We still _cancel_ a document by drawing such
a pattern on it. In German _cancellus_ has given _Kanzel_, pulpit. The
_budget_, now a document in which millions are mere items, was the
chancellor's little bag or purse--
"If tinkers may have leave to live,
And bear the sow-skin _budget_,
Then my account I well may give,
And in the stocks avouch it."
(_Winter's Tale_, iv. 2.)
Fr. _bougette_, from which it is borrowed, is a diminutive of _bouge_, a
leathern bag, which comes from Lat. _bulga_, "a male or _bouget_ of
leather; a purse; a bagge" (Cooper). Modern French has borrowed back our
_budget_, together with several other words dealing with business and
finance.
Among the most important servants of the exchequer were the
_controllers_. We now call them officially _comptroller_, through a
mistaken association with Fr. _compte_, account. The controller had
charge of the _counter-rolls_ (cf. _counterfoil_), from Old Fr.
_contre-rolle_, "the copy of a role (of accounts, etc.), a paralell of
the same quality and content, with the originall" (Cotgrave). In French
_contrôle_ has preserved the sense of supervision or verification which
it has lost in ordinary English.
A very ancient functionary of the exchequer, the tally-cutter, was
abolished in the reign of George III. _Tallies_ (Fr. _tailler_, to cut)
were sticks "scored" across in such a way that the notches could be
compared for purposes of verification. Jack Cade preferred those good
old ways--
"Our fore-fathers had no other books but the _score_ and the
_tally_; thou hast caused books to be used."
(2 _Henry VI._, iv. 7.)
This rudimentary method of calculation was still in use in the Kentish
hop-gardens within fairly recent times; and some of us can remember very
old gentlemen asking us, after a cricket match, how many "notches" we
had "scored"--
"The _scorers_ were prepared to _notch_ the runs."
(_Pickwick_, Ch. 7.)
This use of _score_, for a reckoning in general, or for twenty, occurs
in Anglo-Saxon, but the word is Scandinavian. The words _score_ and
_tally_, originally of identical meaning, were soon differentiated, a
common phenomenon in such cases. For the exchequer _tally_ was
substituted an "indented cheque receipt." An _indenture_, chiefly
familiar to us in connection with apprenticeship, was a duplicate
document of which the "indented" or toothed edges had to correspond like
the notches of the score or tally. _Cheque_, earlier _check_, is
identical with _check_, rebuff. The metaphor is from the game of chess
(see p. 120), to _check_ a man's accounts involving a sort of control,
or pulling up short, if necessary. A _cheque_ is a method of payment
which makes "checking" easy. The modern spelling is due to popular
association with _exchequer_, which is etymologically right, though the
words have reached their modern functions by very different paths.
[Page Heading: OFFICIAL TITLES]
The development of the meaning of _chancellor_ can be paralleled in the
case of many other functionaries, once humble but now important. The
titles of two great medieval officers, the _constable_ and the
_marshal_, mean the same thing. _Constable_, Old Fr. _conestable_
(_connétable_), is Lat. _comes stabuli_, stable fellow. _Marshal_, the
first element of which is cognate with _mare_, while the second
corresponds to modern Ger. _Schalk_, rascal, expresses the same idea in
German. Both _constable_ and _marshal_ are now used of very high
positions, but Policeman X. and the _farrier-marshal_, or shoeing-smith,
of a troop of cavalry, remind them of the base degrees by which they did
ascend. The _Marshalsea_ where Little Dorrit lived is for _marshalsy_,
marshals' office, etc. The _steward_, or _sty-ward_, looked after his
master's pigs. He rose in importance until, by the marriage of Marjorie
Bruce to Walter the _Stewart_ of Scotland, he founded the most
picturesque of royal houses. The _chamberlain_, as his name suggests,
attended to the royal comforts long before he became a judge of
wholesome literature.
All these names now stand for a great number of functions of varying
importance. Other titles which are equally vague are _sergeant_ (see p.
148) and _usher_, Old Fr. _uissier_[65] (_huissier_), lit. door-keeper,
Lat. _ostiarius_, a porter. Another official was the _harbinger_, who
survives only in poetry. He was a forerunner, or vauntcourier, who
preceded the great man to secure him "harbourage" for the night, and his
name comes from Old Fr. _herberger_ (_héberger_), to shelter (see p.
164). As late as the reign of Charles II. we read that--
"On the removal of the court to pass the summer at Winchester,
Bishop Ken's house, which he held in the right of his prebend, was
marked by the _harbinger_ for the use of Mrs Eleanor Gwyn; but he
refused to grant her admittance, and she was forced to seek for
lodgings in another place."
(HAWKINS, _Life of Bishop Ken_.)
[Page Heading: PARALLEL METAPHORS]
One of the most interesting branches of semantics, and the most useful
to the etymologist, deals with the study of parallel metaphors in
different languages. We have seen (p. 29) how, for instance, the names
of flowers show that the same likeness has been observed by various
races. The spice called _clove_ and the _clove_-pink both belong to Lat.
_clavus_, a nail. The German for pink is _Nelke_, a Low German
diminutive, _nail-kin_, of _Nagel_, nail. The spice, or _Gewürznelke_,
is called in South Germany _Nägele_, little nail. A _clove_ of garlic is
quite a separate word; but, as it has some interesting cognates, it may
be mentioned here. It is so called because the bulb _cleaves_ naturally
into segments.[66] The German name is _Knoblauch_, for Mid. High Ger.
_klobe-louch_, clove-leek, by dissimilation of one _l_. The Dutch
doublet is _kloof_, a chasm, gully, familiar in South Africa.
Fr. _poison_, Lat. _potio_, _potion-_, a drink, and Ger. _Gift_, poison,
lit. gift, seem to date from treacherous times. On the other hand, Ger.
_Geschenk_, a present, means something poured out (see _nuncheon_, p.
124), while a tip is in French _pourboire_ and in German _Trinkgeld_,
even when accepted by a lifelong abstainer. In English we "ride a
_hobby_," _i.e._, a hobby-horse, or wooden horse. German has the same
metaphor, "ein _Steckenpferd_ reiten," and French says "enfourcher un
_dada_," _i.e._, to bestride a gee-gee. _Hobby_, for Mid. Eng. _hobin_,
a nag, was a proper name for a horse. Like _Dobbin_ and _Robin_, it
belongs to the numerous progeny of Robert.
In some cases the reason for a metaphor is not quite clear to the modern
mind. The bloodthirsty weasel is called in French _belette_,[67] little
beauty, in Italian _donnola_, in Portuguese _doninha_, little lady, in
Spanish _comadreja_, gossip (Fr. _commère_, Scot. _cummer_, p. 94), in
Bavarian _Schöntierlein_, beautiful little animal, in Danish _kjönne_,
beautiful, and in older English _fairy_.[68] From Lat. _medius_ we get
_mediastinus_, "a drugge (drudge) or lubber to doe all vile service in
the house; a kitching slave" (Cooper). Why this drudge should have a
name implying a middle position I cannot say; but to-day in the North of
England a maid-of-all-work is called a _tweeny_ (between maid).
A stock semantic parallel occurs in the relation between age and
respectability. All of us, as soon as we get to reasonable maturity, lay
great stress on the importance of deference to "elders." It follows
naturally that many titles of more or less dignity should be evolved
from this idea of seniority. The Eng. _alderman_ is obvious. _Priest_,
Old Fr. _prestre_[69] (_prêtre_), from Gk. {presbyteros}, comparative of
{presbys}, old, is not so obvious. In the Romance languages we have a
whole group of words, _e.g._, Fr. _sire_, _sieur_, _seigneur_, Ital.
_signor_, Span. _señor_, with their compounds _monsieur_, _messer_,
etc., all representing either _senior_ or _seniorem_. Ger. _Eltern_,
parents, is the plural comparative of _alt_, old, and the first element
of _seneschal_ (see _marshal_, p. 90) is cognate with Lat. _senex_. From
Fr. _sire_ comes Eng. _sir_, and from this was formed the adjective
_sirly_,[70] now spelt _surly_, which in Shakespeare still means
haughty, arrogant--
"See how the _surly_ Warwick mans the wall."
(3 _Henry VI._, v. 1.)
[Page Heading: LIST--MATELOT]
A _list_, in the sense of enumeration, is a "strip." The cognate German
word is _Leiste_, border. We have the original meaning in "_list_
slippers." Fr. _bordereau_, a list, which became very familiar in
connection with the Dreyfus case, is a diminutive of _bord_, edge.
_Label_ is the same word as Old Fr. _lambel_ (_lambeau_), rag. _Scroll_
is an alteration, perhaps due to _roll_, of Mid. Eng. _scrow_ or
_escrow_, from Old Fr. _escroue_,[71] rag, shred. _Docket_, earlier
_dogget_, is from an old Italian diminutive of _doga_, cask-stave, which
meant a bendlet in heraldry. _Schedule_ is a diminutive of Lat.
_scheda_, "a scrowe" (Cooper), properly a strip of papyrus. Ger.
_Zettel_, bill, ticket, is the same word. Thus all these words, more or
less kindred in meaning, can be reduced to the primitive notion of strip
or scrap.
_Farce_, from French, means stuffing. The verb to _farce_, which
represents Lat. _farcire_, survives in the perverted _force_-meat. A
parallel is _satire_, from Lat. _satura_ (_lanx_), a full dish, hence a
medley. Somewhat similar is the modern meaning of _magazine_, a
"store-house" of amusement or information.
The closest form of intimacy is represented by community of board and
lodging, or, in older phraseology, "bed and board." _Companion_, with
its related words, belongs to Vulgar Lat. _*companio_, _companion-_,
bread-sharer. The same idea is represented by the pleonastic Eng.
_messmate_, the second part of which, _mate_, is related to _meat_.
_Mess_, food, Old Fr. _mes_ (_mets_), Lat. _missum_, is in modern
English only military or naval, but was once the usual name for a dish
of food--
"Herbs and other country _messes_
Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses."
(_Allegro_, l. 85.)
With _mate_ we may compare Fr. _matelot_, earlier _matenot_,
representing Du. _maat_, meat, and _genoot_, a companion. The latter
word is cognate with Ger. _Genosse_, a companion, from _geniessen_, to
enjoy or use together. In early Dutch we find also _mattegenoet_,
through popular association with _matte_, hammock, one hammock serving,
by a Box and Cox arrangement, for two sailors.
_Comrade_ is from Fr. _camarade_, and this from Span. _camarada_,
originally a "room-full," called in the French army _une chambrée_. This
corresponds to Ger. _Geselle_, comrade, from _Saal_, room. The reduction
of the collective to the individual is paralleled by Ger. _Bursche_,
fellow, from Mid. High Ger. _burse_, college hostel; cf. _Frauenzimmer_,
wench, lit. women's room. It can hardly be doubted that _chum_ is a
corrupted clip from _chamber-fellow_.[72] It is thus explained in a
_Dictionary of the Canting Crew_ (1690), within a few years of its
earliest recorded occurrence, and the reader will remember Mr Pickwick's
introduction to the _chummage_ system in the Fleet (Ch. 42).
[Page Heading: CUMMER--GREENHORN]
English _gossip_, earlier _god-sib_, related in God, a sponsor, soon
developed the subsidiary meanings of boon companion, crony, tippler,
babbler, etc., all of which are represented in Shakespeare. The case of
Fr. _compère_ and _commère_, godfather and godmother, is similar.
Cotgrave explains _commérage_ as "gossiping; the acquaintance, affinity,
or league that growes betweene women by christning a child together, or
one for another." Ger. _Gevatter_, godfather, has also acquired the
sense of Fr. _bonhomme_ (p. 80), Eng. _daddy_. From _commère_ comes
Scot. _cummer_ or _kimmer_--
"A canty quean was Kate, and a special _cummer_ of my ain."
(_Monastery_, Ch. 8.)
While christenings led to cheerful garrulity, the wilder fun of weddings
has given the Fr. _faire la noce_, to go on the spree. In Ger.
_Hochzeit_, wedding, lit. high time, we have a converse development of
meaning.
Parallel sense development in different languages sometimes gives us a
glimpse of the life of our ancestors. Our verb to _curry_ (leather)
comes from Old Fr. _corréer_[73] (_courroyer_), to make ready, put in
order, which represents a theoretical _*con-red-are_, the root syllable
of which is Germanic and cognate with our _ready_. Ger. _gerben_, to
tan, Old High Ger. _garawen_, to make ready, is a derivative of _gar_,
ready, complete, now used only as an adverb meaning "quite," but cognate
with our _yare_--
"Our ship--
Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split--
Is tight, and _yare_, and bravely rigg'd."
(_Tempest_, v. 1.)
Both _curry_ and _gerben_ must have acquired their restricted meaning at
a time when there was literally nothing like leather.
Even in slang we find the same parallelism exemplified. We call an
old-fashioned watch a _turnip_. In German it is called _Zwiebel_, onion,
and in French _oignon_. Eng. _greenhorn_ likens an inexperienced person
to an animal whose horns have just begun to sprout. In Ger.
_Gelbschnabel_, yellow-bill, and Fr. _bec-jaune_, we have the metaphor
of the fledgling. Ludwig explains _Gelbschnabel_ by "chitty-face,"
_chit_, cognate with _kit_-ten, being a general term in Mid. English for
a young animal. From _bec-jaune_ we have archaic Scot. _beejam_,
university freshman. Cotgrave spells the French word _bejaune_, and
gives, as he usually does for such words,[74] a very full gloss, which
happens, by exception, to be quotable--
"A novice; a late prentice to, or young beginner in, a trade, or
art; also, a simple, ignorant, unexperienced, asse; a rude,
unfashioned, home-bred hoydon; a sot, ninny, doult, noddy; one
that's blankt, and hath nought to say, when he hath most need to
speake."
The Englishman intimates that a thing has ceased to please by saying
that he is "fed up" with it. The Frenchman says, "J'en ai soupé." Both
these metaphors are quite modern, but they express in flippant form the
same figure of physical satiety which is as old as language. _Padding_
is a comparatively new word in connection with literary composition, but
it reproduces, with a slightly different meaning, the figure expressed
by _bombast_, lit. wadding, a derivative of Greco-Lat. _bombyx_,
originally "silk-worm," whence also _bombasine_. We may compare also
"_fustian_ eloquence"--
"And he, whose _fustian_'s so sublimely bad,
It is not poetry, but prose run mad."
(POPE, _Prologue to the Satires_, l. 187.)
And a very similar image is found in the Latin poet Ausonius--
"At nos illepidum, rudem libellum,
_Burras_, quisquilias ineptiasque
Credemus gremio cui fovendum?"
(_Drepanio Filio._)
Even to "take the cake" is paralleled by the Gk. {labein ton
pyramounta}, to be awarded the cake of roasted wheat and honey which was
originally the prize of him who best kept awake during a night-watch.
In the proverbial expressions which contain the concentrated wisdom of
the ages we sometimes find exact correspondences. Thus "to look a
gift-horse in the mouth" is literally reproduced in French and German.
Sometimes the symbols vary, _e.g._, the risk one is exposed to in
acquiring goods without examination is called by us "buying a pig in a
poke."[75] French and German substitute the cat. We say that "a cat may
look at a king." The French _dramatis personæ_ are a dog and a bishop.
The "bird in hand" which we regard as the equivalent of two in the bush
is in German compared advantageously with ten on the roof.
[Page Heading: NAUTICAL METAPHOR]
Every language has an immense number of metaphors to describe the
various stages of intoxication. We, as a seafaring nation, have
naturally a set of such metaphors taken from nautical English. In French
and German the state of being "half-seas over" or "three sheets in the
wind," and the practice of "splicing the main-brace" are expressed by
various land metaphors. But the more obvious nautical figures are common
property. We speak of being _stranded_; French says "_échouer_ (to run
ashore) dans une entreprise," and German uses _scheitern_, to strand,
split on a rock, in the same way.
Finally, we observe the same principle in euphemism, or that form of
speech which avoids calling things by their names. Euphemism is the
result of various human instincts which range from religious reverence
down to common decency. There is, however, a special type of euphemism
which may be described as the delicacy of the partially educated. It is
a matter of common observation that for educated people a spade is a
spade, while the more outspoken class prefers to call it a decorated
shovel. Between these two classes come those delicate beings whose work
in life is--
"le retranchement de ces syllabes sales
Qui dans les plus beaux mots produisent des scandales;
Ces jouets éternels des sots de tous les temps;
Ces fades lieux-communs de nos méchants plaisants;
Ces sources d'un amas d'équivoques infâmes,
Dont on vient faire insulte à la pudeur des femmes."
(MOLIÈRE, _Les Femmes savantes_, iii. 2.)
In the United States refined society has succeeded in banning as
improper the word _leg_, which must now be replaced by _limb_, even when
the possessor is a boiled fowl, and this refinement is not unknown in
England. The coloured ladies of Barbados appear to have been equally
sensitive--
"Fate had placed me opposite to a fine turkey. I asked my partner if
I should have the pleasure of helping her to a piece of the breast.
She looked at me indignantly, and said, 'Curse your impudence, sar;
I wonder where you larn manners. Sar, I take a lilly turkey _bosom_,
if you please.'"
(_Peter Simple_, Ch. 31.)
This tendency shows itself especially in connection with the more
intimate garments and articles intended for personal use. We have the
absurd name _pocket handkerchief_, _i.e._, pocket hand-cover-head, for a
comparatively modern convenience, the earlier names of which have more
of the directness of the Artful Dodger's "wipe." Ben Jonson calls it a
_muckinder_. In 1829 the use of the word _mouchoir_ in a French
adaptation of _Othello_ caused a riot at the Comédie Française. History
repeats itself, for, in 1907, a play by J. M. Synge was produced in
Dublin, but--
"The audience broke up in disorder at the word _shift_."
(_Academy_, 14th Oct. 1911.)
This is all the more ludicrous when we reflect that _shift_, _i.e._
change of raiment, is itself an early euphemism for _smock_; _cf._ Ital.
_mutande_, "thinne under-breeches" (Florio), from a country and century
not usually regarded as prudish. The fact is that, just as the low word,
when once accepted, loses its primitive vigour (see _pluck_, p. 83), the
euphemism is, by inevitable association, doomed from its very birth.
[Page Heading: SEMANTIC ETYMOLOGY]
I will now give a few examples of the way in which the study of
semantics helps the etymologist. The _antlers_ of a deer are properly
the lowest branches of the horns, what we now call brow-antlers. The
word comes from Old Fr. _antoilliers_, which answers phonetically to a
conjectured Lat. _*ante-oculares_, from _oculus_, eye. This conjecture
is confirmed by the Ger. _Augensprosse_, brow-antler, lit. eye-sprout.
Eng. _plover_, from Fr. _pluvier_, could come from a Vulgar Lat.
_*pluviarius_, belonging to rain. The German name _Regenpfeifer_, lit.
rain-piper, shows this to be correct. It does not matter,
etymologically, whether the bird really has any connection with rain,
for rustic observation, interesting as it is, is essentially
unscientific. The _honey_suckle is useless to the bee. The _slow-worm_,
which appears to be for _slay-worm_, strike-serpent,[76] is perfectly
harmless, and the toad, though ugly, is not venomous, nor does he bear a
jewel in his head.
_Kestrel_, a kind of hawk, represents Old Fr. _quercerelle_
(_crécerelle_), "a kastrell" (Cotgrave). _Crécerelle_ is a diminutive of
_crécelle_, a rattle, used in Old French especially of the leper's
rattle or clapper, with which he warned people away from his
neighbourhood. It is connected with Lat. _crepare_, to resound. The
Latin name for the kestrel is _tinnunculus_, lit. a little ringer,
derived from the verb _tinnire_, to clink, jingle, "tintinnabulate."
Cooper tells us that "they use to set them (kestrels) in pigeon houses,
to make doves to love the place, bicause they feare away other haukes
with their ringing voyce." This information is obtained from the Latin
agriculturist Columella. This parallel makes it clear that Fr.
_crécerelle_, kestrel, is a metaphorical application of the same word,
meaning a leper's "clicket."
The curious word _akimbo_ occurs first in Mid. English in the form _in
kenebowe_. In half a dozen languages we find this attitude expressed by
the figure of a jug-handle, or, as it used to be called, a pot-ear. The
oldest equivalent is Lat. _ansatus_, used by Plautus, from _ansa_, a
jug-handle. _Ansatus homo_ is explained by Cooper as "a man with his
arms _on kenbow_." Archaic French for to stand with arms akimbo is
"faire le pot a deux _anses_," and the same striking image occurs in
German, Dutch, and Spanish. Hence it seems a plausible conjecture that
_kenebowe_ means "jug-handle." This is confirmed by the fact that Dryden
translates _ansa_, "the eare or handle of a cuppe or pot" (Cooper), by
"_kimbo_ handle" (Vergil, _Ecl._ iii. 44). Eng. _bow_, meaning anything
bent, is used in many connections for handle. The first element may be
_can_, applied to every description of vessel in earlier English, as it
still is in Scottish, or it may be some Scandinavian word. In fact the
whole compound may be Scandinavian. Thomas' _Latin Dictionary_ (1644)
explains _ansatus homo_ as "one that in bragging manner strowteth up and
down with his armes _a-canne-bow_."
[Page Heading: DEMURE--LUGGER]
_Demure_ has been explained as from Mid. Eng. _mure_, ripe, mature, with
prefixed _de_. But _demure_ is the older word of the two, and while the
loss of the atonic first syllable is normal in English (p. 61), it would
be hard to find a case in which a meaningless prefix has been added. Nor
does the meaning of _demure_ approximate very closely to that of ripe.
It now has a suggestion of slyness, but in Milton's time meant sedate--
"Come, pensive nun, devout and pure,
Sober, stedfast, and _demure_."
(_Penseroso_, l. 31.)
and its oldest meaning is calm, settled, used of the sea. When we
consider that it is nearly equivalent to _staid_, earlier _stayed_, and
compare the equivalent terms in other languages, _e.g._, Lat. _sedatus_,
Fr. _rassis_, Ger. _gesetzt_, etc., it seems likely that it is formed
from the Old Norman _demurer_ (_demeurer_), to "stay," just as _stale_
is formed from Old Fr. _estaler_ (_étaler_), to display on a _stall_, or
_trove_, in "treasure _trove_," from Old Fr. _trover_ (_trouver_).
The origin of _lugger_ is unknown, but the word is recorded a century
later than _lugsail_, whence it is probably derived. The explanation of
_lugsail_ as a _sail_ that is _lugged_ seems to be a piece of
folk-etymology. The French for _lugsail_ is _voile de fortune_, and a
still earlier name, which occurs also in Tudor English, is
_bonaventure_, _i.e._, good luck. Hence it is not unreasonable to
conjecture that _lugsail_ stands for _*luck-sail_, just as the name
_Higson_ stands for _Hickson_ (see p. 172).
The _pips_ on cards or dice have nothing to do with apple pips. The
oldest spelling is _peeps_. In the Germanic languages they are called
"eyes," and in the Romance languages "points"; and the Romance
derivatives of Lat. _punctus_, point, also mean "_peep_ of day." Hence
the _peeps_ are connected with the verb to _peep_.
The game called _dominoes_ is French, and the name is taken from the
phrase _faire domino_, to win the game. _Domino_, a hooded cloak worn by
priests in winter, is an Italian word, apparently connected with Lat.
_dominus_. French also has, in various games, the phrase _faire capot_,
with a meaning like that of _faire domino_. _Capot_, related to Eng.
_cap_ and Fr. _chapeau_, means properly a hooded cloak. The two
metaphors are quite parallel, but it is impossible to say what was the
original idea. Perhaps it was that of extinguishing the opponent by
putting, as it were, his head in a bag.
The card game called _gleek_ is often mentioned in Tudor literature. It
is derived from Old Fr. _glic_, used by Rabelais, and the word is very
common in the works of the more disreputable French poets of the 15th
century. According to French archaeologists the game was also called
_bonheur_, _chance_, _fortune_, and _hasard_. Hence _glic_ represents in
all probability Ger. _Glück_, luck.[77] The Old French form _ghelicque_
would correspond to Mid. High Ger. _gelücke_. The history of _tennis_
(p. 10) and _trump_ (p. 9) shows that it is not necessary to find the
German word recorded in the same sense.
[Page Heading: SENTRY]
The word _sentry_, which occurs in English only, has no connection at
all with _sentinel_, the earliest form of which is Ital. _sentinella_,
of unknown origin. The older lexicographers obscured the etymology of
_sentry_, which is really quite simple, by always attempting to treat
it along with _sentinel_. It is a common phenomenon in military
language that the abstract name of an action is applied to the building
or station in which the action is performed, then to the group of men
thus employed, and finally to the individual soldier. Thus Lat.
_custodia_ means (1) guardianship, (2) a ward-room, watch-tower, (3) the
watch collectively, (4) a watchman. Fr. _vigie_, the look-out man on
board ship, can be traced back in a similar series of meanings to Lat.
_vigilia_, watching.[78] A _sentry_, now a single soldier, was formerly
a band of soldiers--
"What strength, what art can then
Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe
Through the strict _senteries_ and stations thick
Of angels watching round?"
(_Paradise Lost_, ii. 410.)
and earlier still a watch-tower, _e.g._, Cotgrave explains Old Fr.
_eschauguette_ (_échauguette_) as "a _sentrie_, watch-tower, beacon."
The purely abstract sense survives in the phrase "to keep _sentry_"
_i.e._ guard--
"Here toils, and Death, and Death's half-brother, Sleep,
Forms terrible to view their _centry_[79] keep."
(DRYDEN, _Æneid_, vi. 277.)
It is a contracted form of _sanctuary_. In the 17th century it is a
pretty familiar word in this sense.[79] The earliest example I have come
across is in Nashe--
"He hath no way now to slyppe out of my hands, but to take _sentrie_
in the Hospital of Warwick."
(First Part of PASQUIL'S _Apologie_, 1590.)
Fr. _guérite_, a sentry box, can be traced back in the same way to Old
Fr. _garir_ (_guérir_), to save. Cotgrave explains it as "a place of
refuge, and of safe retyrall," also "a _sentrie_, or little lodge for a
sentinell, built on high." It is to this latter sense that we owe Eng.
_garret_. In medieval French _guérite_ means refuge, sanctuary--
"Ceste roche est Ihesucrist meismes qui est li refuges et la
_garite_ aus humbles."[80]
If French had not borrowed _sentinelle_ from Italian, _guérite_ would
probably now mean "sentry"; _cf._ the history of _vigie_ (p. 103), or of
_vedette_, a cavalry sentry, but originally "a prying or peeping hole"
(Florio), from Ital. _vedere_, to see.
FOOTNOTES:
[63] Parchment (see p. 49) was invented as a substitute when the supply
of papyrus failed.
[64] The "stick" meaning survives in the _yards_ of a ship. _Yard_ was
once the general word for rod, wand. Thus the "cheating _yardwand_" of
Tennyson's "smooth-faced snubnosed rogue" (_Maud_, I. i. 16) is a
pleonasm of the same type as _greyhound_ (p. 135). _Yard_, an enclosure,
is a separate word, related to _garden_.
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